


White Mage

by xSkyll



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Dorks in Love, Drama, Fluff and Humor, Love Letters, M/M, That's it, and they're in love, that's the story, wingman Aerith, zack and cloud are hospital patients
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 27,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24397711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSkyll/pseuds/xSkyll
Summary: Aerith was prepared for a lot of things when she started volunteering at Midgar Hospital. Death, blood, guts. . .surely not a front row seat to the weirdest romance story she'd ever seen. After all, chocobos and porcupines just DON'T mix. (Originally posted on FF.net)
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 43
Kudos: 185





	1. At First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> This story is nine years old! I went back to FF.net and I had originally posted this on Cloud's bday. That was cute, past me.  
> I wrote this story as a breather, to try to get through writer's block. I remember with my first FFVII fic, I had challenged myself to write a story with almost no dialogue. For this one, I challenged myself to write a story where the focus was on romance, but the main character wasn't a part of said romance.  
> So here you have it. One Clack fanfic, starring Aerith.

When Aerith Gainsborough was in first grade, her teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She cried when she was told she couldn’t be an all-powerful white mage with incredibly healing capabilities like Priscilla, her favorite character on the _Chocobo Chicks_ cartoon.

Now, Aerith knew that teachers were big and scary, and meant to be respected and obeyed, but that didn’t mean she fully trusted them. With that in mind, she decided to consult the two people she trusted most in the world. They were the nicest people she’d ever met, they _never_ lied (not even a little fib!), and they knew everything there was to know in the whole wide world. Their names were Mommy and Daddy.

That day, Daddy was the one waiting at the bus stop for her after school, so he had the honor of being asked first. Could she be an all-powerful white mage when she grew up, just like Priscilla? Please?

Daddy smiled and said that he wasn’t too sure about an _all-powerful_ white mage, but he was sure she could be a white mage, if she worked hard. Her teacher’s words still left her feeling a little doubtful, however, so she ventured to ask Daddy how he knew that. How was he _sure_? Daddy smiled and side glanced at her in that way that meant he was going to reveal to her a secret. A top-secret secret!

Daddy told her that he knew she could be a white mage, because Mommy was a white mage. Aerith was confused, until Daddy explained that in Priscilla’s world, doctors were called white mages, and in their world, white mages were called doctors! It was like soda and pop, two different words that meant exactly the same thing!

After that day, Priscilla stopped being Aerith’s hero (she was still her favorite character though, of course). Instead, Aerith started looking up to Mommy. After all, Mommy was a _real_ white mage! Priscilla was just a cartoon! At that point in her life, Aerith didn’t realize the significance of being a _real_ white mage, versus being a cartoon one. Cartoon white mages were magic, and could heal any wound, no matter what. In _Chocobo Chicks_ the video game, they could even bring back other players from the dead! Real white mages, on the other hand, had to heal people with their own hard work, determination, knowledge, and skill. They needed other mages to assist them, and strange tools and instruments. No bejeweled staffs, no wands, no magic feathers. And real mages, sometimes didn’t succeed in their healing. Sometimes, people died anyway, and there was no way to revive them.

As she grew older, Aerith came to recognize these differences. She could accept all that though. Doctors and white mages were different, sure, but they basically boiled down to the same thing, and that was helping people. Aerith liked that.

Whenever Aerith played the _Chocobo Chicks_ video game, she was always careful to keep Priscilla safe. That wasn’t because Priscilla was her favorite character, but because if she died, there would be no one to revive her. White mages couldn’t revive themselves, after all. Unfortunately, doctors were the same way. Aerith realized that when she was eleven years old, and Mom (Mommy and Daddy changed their names to Mom and Dad during third grade) got into a bad car accident. Mom died, because no white mages could get to her in time. After that, Aerith decided she didn’t want to be a white mage when she grew up. She wanted to be a _doctor_. A real live doctor, just like Mom, so she could help people with her own two hands.

_________________________

“Miss Gainsborough?”

Aerith glanced behind her, a smile gracing her soft features. “Tseng. I’m surprised you’re still here.”

Tseng approached her and they continued down the hall, side by side. “I could say the same about you. And please Miss Gainsborough, it’s Dr. Zhíshengji. You know how they get about names and professionalism.”

She giggled. “You’ve been Tseng since I was a little girl. Protocol isn’t going to change that.”

Tseng sighed. “You practically still are a little girl. You shouldn’t be staying here later than you’re supposed to, your father will worry.”

“I’m a very tall little girl, if that’s the case. And I’m not staying too long.”

“May I ask why you’re staying at all? This isn’t even your normal floor.”

“I’m visiting a friend.”

Tseng stopped. “I see. Well, don’t stay too long. I’ve got to get back to work. Be safe, Miss Gainsborough.”

Aerith waved as Tseng walked away, then turned around and continued on her way. A small smile graced her lips. “A friend. . . or two. . . or four.” She giggled to herself, then turned to room 24-C and went inside.

It was six years since her mother died and in all that time, her determination to follow in her footsteps had only grown stronger. Sixteen was the minimum age for volunteers at Midgar Hospital, and Aerith had applied the day after her birthday. That was roughly a year ago, and she was now a well-known, and well-beloved, face at the facility. In her time there, she had made many friends, mostly with staff members, as patients tended to come and go. There were plenty of patients that stuck around though, and she’d become fond of several of them. Doing work on the fourth floor, where the long term patients stayed, was always a treat, but when she was needed elsewhere all day (as she usually was), she always made sure she stopped by at the end of the day to visit her favorites.

First on the list was Cid Highwind. Cid was a lung cancer patient that checked in and out of the hospital as often as normal people changed their clothes (okay, so maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but point was, he was in there a _lot_ ). Frankly, Cid should have been a long-term patient, but the man was as stubborn as a mule. For as long as Aerith had been at Midgar Hospital, he’d been in a nasty cycle of heavy smoking, being forced to go to the hospital by a woman named Shera (Aerith knew they lived together, but wasn’t sure of the relation), getting cranky and complaining until they let him leave said hospital, then returning to heavy smoking and repeating. Aerith was starting to wonder if Cid himself even realized he was trapped in a loop.

“Hello Cid, how are you feeling today?” she asked as she stepped into the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

“Like hell! Damn, what took you so long, girl? I thought you’d never get here. I’ve had no one to talk to but morons, nitwits, and imbeciles all day long!” Cid chewed angrily at his hospital issued cigarette replacement (ie: toothpick). “Feels like my brain is turning to mush, being cooped up in this place.”

Aerith sat down next to his bed and patiently listened to him complain. When he was done, he (as usual) inquired about her well-being and social life. He made it very clear that when she got herself a boyfriend, he wanted her to bring him to the hospital so he could inspect and evaluate his worth for himself. Aerith thought that was very sweet and touching (Cid got mad if she told him that though), and held a special place in her heart for the foulmouthed man.

After visiting with Cid, she went down the hall to room 35-C to visit Barret Wallace. Barret was a frighteningly large man who, despite his sometimes rough demeanor, was wonderfully kind and had a heart of gold. Barret had only been in the hospital for about a month, but Aerith had quickly taken a liking to him. He had been in an accident at work that left him with a leg injury that, while minor, left him momentarily bedridden, and with a severely injured right arm. His hand had to be completely amputated and replaced with a prosthetic.

“Hi Barret! How are you feeling today?”

Barret grunted. “I’m aight. Been better. . .”

Aerith sat down. “You got new flowers. Did Marlene bring them?”

Marlene was Barret’s adoptive daughter, and his sole reason for living. If Barret was Earth, then Marlene was the Sun. A friend of Barret’s offered to take Marlene in until he was out of the hospital, and she brought her to visit him every day.

Barret smiled. “Yeah, she’s gotta good eye for ‘em, aight she? Artist, that’s what she is.”

They chatted about Marlene a while longer (Apparently she was picking up bad tastes in clothes from her new caretaker. Barret was very displeased when she came in dressed in cowboy boots with a matching hat), and then Aerith left to visit her third patient in 38-C.

“Hi Zack, how are—Zack what are you doing!?”

“Shit!” The young man had been leaning out the window and, at the sound of her voice, had recoiled back in surprise and hit his head on the windowpane.

“Are you okay?” she asked, closing the door then approaching him. “What were you doing? You’re supposed to be resting.”

Zack grumbled, rubbing his head briefly before leaning back out the window. “Dammit, I missed,” he mumbled, pulling back and closing the window. “I’m fine, you just surprised me. And I was just having a little fun. If I ‘rested’ as much as they told me to, I’d wither away. Besides, I feel great. Ran some laps around the old people today.”

She hit him gently on the arm, but couldn’t keep herself from laughing. “Zack, you shouldn’t do that. You know how cranky they get.”

Zack shrugged. “I have to have _something_ to do. I’m dying in here! Naked pull-ups on the shower rod get dull after a while.”

Aerith rolled her eyes. “You’re going to break that thing one day. And you avoided my question. What were you doing at the window?”

Of all her patients, Zack Fair was her favorite to be around. He had been admitted several years before she started volunteering, but whatever illness he had was very slow moving. According to him, he was originally from a place called Gongaga, but his family moved to Midgar when he was twelve. Not long after the move, he was hit with a nausea spell that wouldn’t go away. When he started coughing up blood, his parents brought him to the hospital and he’d been there ever since. The older he got, the more violent his attacks got, but they were totally unpredictable. He could be healthy for two straight months, then suddenly be bedridden for a month. Sometimes he was only sick for a day or two though. No one could figure out what was wrong with him, but several other patients (generally his age or younger) had the same problem.

Zack grinned. “Know those casserole things they give us? Tastes like dead people?”

“Can’t say I’m familiar with that flavor, but I think I know what you’re talking about,” she answered reluctantly. She already knew where this was going…

“Well, I figured I’d share the _joy_ of those casseroles with the outside world! I was _just_ about to deliver one to a charming gentleman outside when you interrupted. Thanks to you, that poor man will never know the delightful taste of hospital grade casserole.”

She hit his arm again. “Zack! You can’t drop food out of a fourth story window, that’s a waste!” She pursed her lips. “And it’s rude to the people you’re trying to hit.”

The main problem with Zack was, because he was generally more healthy than he was sick, and he was young, he tended to have a lot of energy. He hated being cooped up at the hospital, and he was always getting into all sorts of mischief.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He sat down on his bed, crossing his legs and gesturing her to do the same. “So what’s up?”

She stayed for a bit and chatted with him, letting him know about any changes to the outside world, and listening to his plans to terrorize the nurses. Apparently, Zack had once been very popular. Friends would travel all the way from Gongaga to visit him, and the few friends he’d made in Midgar visited frequently. As the years passed, however, his visitors became scarcer and scarcer. Anymore, his parents were the only ones that ever visited. His best friend Kunsel from Gongaga used to visit him every other month for a long time, so Aerith heard, but he enlisted with Shinra Military one year ago, when he turned 18, and since then, he’d only been in to visit once. Zack was always smiling, but she was pretty sure he was lonely. Most patients were.

After Zack, Aerith had one more patient to visit. Cloud Strife was a boy her own age who’d been at the hospital since he was nine. He wasn’t the most talkative of people, but from what she could gather, he grew up in a small town at the foot of Mount Nibel. He never actually admitted it, but Aerith was pretty sure he was picked on as a child. When he was nine, some boys pushed him into one of the rivers on the mountain and he almost drowned. After that incident, he started getting ill, displaying symptoms very similar to Zack’s. The town doctor did his best, but after a year, his mother grew desperate and moved to Midgar, hoping the more advanced care would help.

He wasn’t in Midgar long when he took a turn for the worse. He was hospital bound in a matter of months. To make matters even worse, there was an electrical fire in his mother’s apartment when he was thirteen. She died, leaving him not only friendless, but without any living family. According to some of the older nurses and doctors, Cloud used to smile a lot before his mother died. In the year that she’d known him, Aerith had only seen him smile once.

Cloud was in room 12-D, which was down a different wing than the other three. Most long-term patients would prefer to be in wing C, because of the street view. Aerith was pretty sure Cloud preferred the quieter wing D though, with its peaceful overview of the hospital courtyard. Sometimes, if she found herself with some spare time and he was feeling well, Aerith would take Cloud down to the courtyard and teach him how to tend to the flowers properly. At first he was too rough with them, and sometimes (accidentally, of course) he ended up killing a few. Deep down, Cloud was a very gentle person though, and he picked up on how to properly nurture them quickly.

“Cloud?” He was on the floor doing sit-ups. She rolled her eyes. Men.

He stopped what he was doing and locked eyes with her, then immediately looked away. It was a habit he had with everyone. “Hi Aerith,” he said, standing up.

“Hi. How are you today?” she asked, walking toward him and taking his hand.

He shrugged. “Fine.”

She smiled. “I came just in time to see the sunset. Were you planning on watching?” she asked, tugging at his hand gently to pull him toward the bed. She sat down facing the window and he obediently sat next to her.

“Not really,” he mumbled.

She squeezed his hand gently. “Well, now you are.”

Talking to Cloud was a bit like talking to yourself. However, just because he didn’t speak much, didn’t mean he wasn’t listening. Aerith was certain that Cloud paid the highest attention to everything she said, and everything anyone else said, for that matter. He would never admit it, but he was particularly lonely. It was why Aerith made an extra effort to talk to him, to hold his hand, and to give him hugs. She wanted to make sure he remembered what affection was and, more than that, she wanted to assure him that he was cared for. It was painfully obvious how little Cloud thought of himself.

When the sun finished setting, Aerith left Cloud to go home. It was the middle of June, and her summer vacation had just started. Growing up, spring had always been her favorite month, but once she started volunteering, summer quickly rose to the top. Summer meant she could stay longer at the hospital. Summer meant helping more people, getting more experience, being there _every day_. For _hours_. Summer, well…summer represented her future.

Each day Aerith spent with Midgar Hospital was always different. Of course, there was a certain amount of 'humdrum,' but generally it was always something new. New patients with new problems that required new treatments. Working at a hospital was never dull. Especially when Zack Fair was in said hospital.

When Aerith came in the next day, the other nurses immediately accosted her.

“Gainsborough, thank goodness. Maybe _you_ can calm him down.”

“Huh?” was barely out of her mouth before she found herself being escorted into the elevator.

“Lucretia? What’s going on?” she asked, slightly bewildered, “Calm down who?”

“It’s Miss Crescent, Miss Gainsborough. And it’s Mr. Fair. He’s been moved to a new room, in wing D, and he’s positively beside himself. He’s driving us _crazy_ ,” she said, rubbing her temples.

“Wing D? Why’s he there? Zack likes having a view of the street.”

“He’ll be lucky if he ever gets a window view again,” she huffed. “That boy belongs in a straitjacket, destructive as he is. Can you believe he was hanging from his shower head by his feet, _naked_ , and was trying to do some sort of upside down curls? Who does that!?”

Aerith cleared her throat. “Well, Zack certainly does enjoy working out. . .”

“We have a gym downstairs!”

“. . . and he really likes doing things as creatively as possible,” she finished. Lucretia frowned.

“Well, thanks to his ‘creativity’ and his wild flailing around, the shower head AND the faucet have both been ripped off, there’s several holes in the shower walls, and room 38-C is half flooded. He tried to stop the water by shoving a breakfast roll in one of the pipes! A breakfast roll! We’ve been cleaning up his mess all morning!”

The elevator dinged as they reached the fourth floor and Lucretia led her out, making a beeline toward wing D.

“A room in wing D opened up just yesterday, so we stuck him in there and he’s been making a fuss about it ever since.”

Aerith was slightly surprised when Lucretia came to a halt in front of Cloud’s room.

“Everyone knows you’re friends with him, Miss Gainsborough. _Please_ try to calm him down. Before he breaks something else.”

Lucretia stepped toward room 11-D and produced a keycard. “Make sure you keep the door locked. He’s in confinement until he learns his lesson.” She unlocked the door, patted Aerith on the shoulder, then left her alone to deal with him.

She barely had the door open when she found herself with an armful of Zack.

“Aerith! Thank Goddess, someone with some sense! You HAVE to get me out of here! I’m going crazy!”

Aerith laughed gently and pushed him back, mindful that he might be planning an escape. As soon as they were both safely through the door, she firmly closed it.

“Zack.” She was using her ‘you’re in trouble’ tone of voice. He immediately started sulking. “What on _earth_ were you thinking? A shower head can’t possibly support your weight.”

“Aeeeriiiith! I was boooored! I didn’t mean to break it!” He sat down on his bed and pouted up at her. “I was just trying to have some fun. Make things interesting.”

She sighed. “There’s a gym downstairs Zack.”

“I’ve been using that equipment for years! Is it so wrong that I wanted to change things up? They didn’t have to stick me in solitary confinement!”

Giving him a gentle smile, Aerith sat down and placed a hand on his knee. “Zack, you’re not in solitary confinement.”

“There’s no window!” he interrupted. “And the door’s locked!”

“Zack, you’re just in time out for a little while. Besides, your room is flooded. Where did you expect them to put you?”

Zack dropped his gaze to his feet. “I asked them if I could room with Angeal. Or Genesis. Or Seph. Or Barret. I even asked if I could room with Cid! You think that would be punishment enough but noooo, they stick me in here all by myself! With no window! I’m dying! Aerith, you gotta help me. . .” he whined, fixing her with his best kicked puppy look.

She knew his games by now and adverted her gaze. “No Zack. You have to learn to treat this hospital with more respect. You can’t keep causing so much mischief. What will your mother say when she finds out?”

Zack grunted. “I still think I deserve a window, at the very least. I didn’t _mean_ to break anything.”

She patted his kneecap. “I’m sure you’ll get your old room back as soon as it’s dry, Zack. Which reminds me, what’s this I hear about a breakfast roll?”

Zack grinned sheepishly. “I thought it’d help if I tried to plug some of the pipes. Stop the water, and all that. It wasn’t _that_ bad of an idea, right? Those rolls are like rocks. How was I suppose to know the pipes would burst…?”

Aerith laughed. “I guess it’s the thought that counts. You’ll just have to be careful from now on, okay? You could have hurt yourself.”

Zack smiled and pounded a fist to his chest. “No way! Zack Fair isn’t going to let some stupid shower do him in! I’m tougher than that!”

“Well good, but I still want you to be careful. Now, are you going to behave yourself once I leave?”

Zack frowned. “If I say no, will you stay?”

“No, I just won’t come back to see you later. You’ll be in here _all_ day, _all_ alone.”

“Aerith, that’s mean! I’ll be good, I promise!”

She stood up from the bed. “Good. I’ll be back later then. Maybe I’ll bring you some flowers.”

Zack stood and followed her to the door. “Sounds great! This room is too white. You should bring the kids in the children’s wing up and let them color on the walls.”

“Zack, stop trying to squeeze out the door after me.”

He pulled his foot away from the door. “Damn. Foiled again.”

“Bye, Zack.”

“See ya.”

The rest of the day was a lot more uneventful. She saw the damage done to Zack’s old room (it was bad; she made a mental note to never break her shower), but other than that, it was the normal routine. Actually, things could almost be considered slow. During a particularly slow moment, Aerith caught Lucretia at the nurses' station and approached her.

“Miss Crescent?”

She was immediately suspicious. “Yes, Miss Gainsborough?”

“One of the patients in wing D wanted to spend some time outside, and asked me to accompany him. You don’t need me for anything immediately, do you?”

Lucretia eyed her. “ _Which_ patient?”

“Cloud Strife,” she said, rocking back on her heels.

Lucretia’s expression immediately softened. “Oh, Mr. Strife. Yes, that’s fine. He could use the fresh air, go right ahead.”

Most of the nurses had a soft spot for Cloud. Besides spending so many years there, he was almost painfully well-mannered and had more endearing qualities than seemed possible (Aerith was certain he wasn’t aware of a single one of them though).

“Thanks Lucretia!” she chimed, ignoring the firm “Miss Crescent!” yelled in response and walking briskly down wing D. She felt kind of bad turning her back on Zack’s door, knowing he was lonely, but he had a lesson to learn. She knocked on Cloud’s door once and entered without waiting for a response.

“Cloud! I promised a friend I would get him some flowers. Come help me pick them!”

Cloud never seemed surprised, no matter how quickly she entered his room. “Alright,” he replied, completely unfazed. She had high hopes of scaring him one day.

She took his hand (it took three months for him to stop trying to instinctively pull it back), and led him down the corridor. They took the stairs down to the bottom level, Aerith chattering happily all the way, and then she dragged him out into the warm sunshine of the courtyard. The courtyard wasn’t exceedingly large, but it wasn’t exactly small either. Just enough for the patients to get some sun and fresh air. The area was a square, with a walkway lining the perimeter and a shady tree overlooking a small flowerbed right in the center. Aerith let go of Cloud’s hand in favor of linking arms with him and leisurely made her way to the flowerbed. It was nice outside, and she wanted Cloud to enjoy it.

When they reached the flowerbed, Aerith was secretly thrilled when Cloud immediately knelt down to test the dampness of the soil. He’d learned so much, so fast! She knelt down next to him and carefully took a stem in hand.

“He likes blue, I believe,” she said, carefully snapping the stem. “What’s your favorite color, Cloud?”

Cloud gently fingered the stem of another blue flower and gave a small shrug. “Black, I guess.”

“Black? That’s not a happy color at all! Besides, there aren’t any black flowers here. And if there were, a black and blue bouquet might not send the right message!” She said with amusement. “Aren’t there any other colors you like?”

He was quiet for a while. “Purple is. . . nice. Blue’s okay. I guess I prefer dark colors.”

Aerith hunted for a deep purple flower. When she found one, she gently cupped the blossom and lightly elbowed Cloud.

“Is this the kind of purple you like? It’s kind of dark.”

Cloud nodded. “That one’s nice. I guess.”

She giggled again and snapped the stem, placing it to the side with the blue one. “You’re so indecisive Cloud. With as much time as you spend in your head, you think you’d know yourself a little better.” She smiled tenderly and pushed some of his hair behind his ear. “Wanna pick the purple ones, while I pick the blue? We’ll make them into a pretty bouquet together.”

Cloud nodded (the hair behind his ear slipped back out), and silently went to work. Aerith worked harmoniously beside him, quietly humming a slow gentle tune.

When Aerith thought they had enough she gathered them all up and quickly arranged them in a pleasing fashion. Once she was satisfied, she handed them to Cloud and stood up, brushing the dirt off her knees.

“Wanna deliver them with me?”

Gaze adverted. “I don’t know. That would probably be weird.”

Aerith ducked down so that she was in his line of sight. That seemed to miff him a little. “It won’t be weird! Look, you don’t even have to talk to him! Just stand there while I give him the flowers. Afterwards we can go to your room and make some origami or something.”

“I don’t like ori—”

“Great! It’s settled then! Let’s get going, we need to get these flowers in a vase!” And off she went. Cloud only hesitated a moment before wearily tagging along.

“Zaaaaaack! Guess who’s come back to visit you?” Aerith said in a sing-song voice, opening the door only a crack to hide her face.

“Hmmm, I do not know. Whoever could it be? May I please have some hints?” came Zack’s cheery (cheerily fake) reply.

Cloud raised an eyebrow.

“Ooookaaaay. First hint! I’m the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen.”

“Oh, I know! It’s Tseng!”

Cloud snorted.

“Zackary Fair, that was mean! And no, I’m not Tseng,” she huffed.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dissed Tsengy-poo. What’s the next hint!?”

“Alright, second hint! I have large, pretty green eyes!”

“Ooh, ooh, ooh! Sephiroth!”

“Zaaaack,” she said in a warning tone. Cloud was frowning now. He and Sephiroth got into a fight over an unsalted pretzel when he was ten. Apparently neither of them liked salt. The fight was broken up by a nurse, and they were both given a time-out. No pretzels were given after said time-out. They never got over it.

“This is your last chance! Third hint! I work for the hospital for FREE, and I’m your bff!”

“That was two hints! You made me cheat!”

“Zack!”

“Alright, alright. Hmm, let’s see. Bff, huh? Well, I’m gonna have to say it’s. . . Aerith!”

“Yay!!!” she yelled, throwing the door open. “I told you I would come back!”

“I never doubted you!” He threw his arms out and enveloped her in a hug. “Heeeey, you said you’d bring me flowers though!”

“I did! Wait here!”

She scurried back to the door where Cloud was practically hiding behind the wall. He cast a nervous glance at Zack before dropping his eyes to the ground and holding the flowers out for Aerith.

She took a step closer to him and grabbed the bouquet, whispering, “If you really want to wait for me in your room, or in the hall, I don’t mind.”

He nodded, giving her what may have been the world’s tiniest smile (oh, who was she kidding, it was almost a frown), then backed into the hallway.

Aerith turned around and was surprised to see that Zack wasn’t smiling anymore. His gaze was fixated on the door and Aerith glanced back to see what he was staring at. Nothing.

“Zack, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“Huh. . .? Oh, no, I’m fine!” he laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, “Those are for me? Geez Aerith, you’re the best!”

Aerith smiled and walked over to the small stand by his bed. “Sure are! Let’s find a vase for them, shall we?” Each room at the hospital had a small supply of cheap vases, in the event a visitor didn’t bring one. Aerith fished an appropriately sized one out and went to the sink, filling it with water. She gingerly placed the bouquet inside, fluffing it up a bit, then held up her work. “There. What do you think? Zack?”

Zack didn’t acknowledge that he even heard her. While she was getting the water, he’d moved a little to the left so he could have a better view out the door. She walked over to see what had him so enraptured.

All she could see was Cloud, leaning against his door and gazing down the corridor, no doubt completely oblivious to his surroundings. He got like that when he was thinking.

She glanced up. “Zack? Are you okay?”

Zack didn’t respond to her voice, but Cloud did, snapping out of his trance and glancing up in her direction. Zack broke into a goofy grin and waved weakly. “Hi. I’m Zack.”

Cloud’s gaze immediately shot to the floor. He hesitantly raised it again, looking between Zack and Aerith before settling on Zack. He started blushing.

“Hi,” he softly mumbled, dropping his gaze again, “Zack.” He glanced up and, apparently disconcerted that Zack was _still_ staring at him, decided to make his escape. He shifted awkwardly to the side, keeping Zack in his sights as he blindly fumbled for the doorknob. As soon as he made contact he creaked his door open and started slinking inside. “Um, I hope you, uh, like your flowers, Zack.” He locked eyes with him and his face flared up again. “Bye,” he said, shutting the door before Zack could even blink and disappearing from sight.

Zack turned to Aerith, goofy smile still in place. “Is he my neighbor?”

Aerith was confused. That had quite possibly been one the weirdest things she’d ever seen. “Yeah. He’s REALLY shy though, so don’t be expecting him to come visit you or anything. It took me _forever_ to get him to talk to me, and he still barely speaks.” She held up the vase. “He helped me pick these for you.”

Zack took the vase. “Really? That’s cool. Does he like flowers?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t care about them at first, but I started teaching him how to tend to them and stuff. I think he likes them quite a bit now.”

“Right, right.” Zack set the vase down by his bed and lightly fingered a blue petal. “Has he been here long?”

“Since he was ten.”

Zack whipped around like she’d just told him Cloud was really a human-shaped bomb. “Ten? Why, what’s wrong with him?”

“Uh, we’re not really sure. Judging by the symptoms, we think he has the same thing you do.” She frowned. “Are you feeling alright Zack? You’re acting really odd. I can get your medicine for you, if you want. . .”

“Huh? No, no, I’m fine. I’m totally fine. I was just, you know, being nosy. You know how I am!” he said with a laugh.

She laughed with him, albeit a little less enthusiastically. “Whatever you say, Zack. I have to get going now, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“That sounds great! See ya tomorrow!”

Aerith left, a small frown gracing her features. Usually Zack begged her to stay and keep him company.

“That was weird,” she murmured, stepping into Cloud’s room (unfortunately, she was too distracted by her thoughts to notice that he jumped when she entered). “Sorry about that, Cloud. Zack doesn’t mean to be rude, he just, well, he just is sometimes. I’m sure he was just staring because you’re a new face to him. He likes making friends.”

“Oh.”

“He’s normally in wing C, but his room is undergoing some. . . renovations right now, so we stuck him here for the time being. It probably won’t be too long before he goes back.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t be alarmed if he tries to visit you, I promise he doesn’t mean any harm. He’s actually really really nice. You should try making friends with him. I bet you two would get along well.”

“Hn.”

She smiled. “Well, Mr. Chatterbox, ready for some origami? I figured if we got really good, we could teach the kids downstairs how to do it! Did you keep that how-to book I gave you last week?”

Cloud nodded and opened the top drawer of his bed stand, pulling the book out and handing it to her. She flipped through it quickly.

“Hmm, glad to see you’ve been practicing,” she commented dryly, noting the untouched origami paper in the book. “Well, let’s get to work! When I was little I made a frog once, and if you pushed his butt down, he would hop!”

“I like frogs,” Cloud offered quietly, watching her skim the book’s pages. She looked up, momentarily started by the small confession, then grinned and sat down on the bed, laying the book in front of her.

“That settles it then.” She patted the space next to her, indicating for him to sit. “Let’s make some frogs.”

_________________________

The next day, Aerith was surprised to find not only Zack (nothing was surprising when Zack was involved), but Cloud missing from their rooms. She didn’t bother wondering where Zack was. He LOVED roaming around, particularly when he wasn’t supposed to. Cloud, on the other hand, never went far unless provoked (usually by her). A thought crossed her mind and she smiled. He was probably with the children, teaching them origami. Cloud was a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) awkward around people, but deep down he really liked children and enjoyed making them happy. That idea in mind, she went down to the children’s wing to see how he was making out with them.

She got her second surprise of the day when she found not only Cloud in the playroom, but Zack as well.

“What!? My turtle doesn’t suck! He just. . . has some battle scars! Yeah! He’s a warrior turtle! Take that!” Zack held up a (slightly misshapen) paper turtle and waved it around Cloud’s face, occasionally poking him with it on the cheek or chin. The children laughed as Cloud tried to bat him away.

“I’ll protect you, Cloud!” a little girl yelled, standing up, pink paper alligator in hand, “Roooaaar!!!” She lunged across Cloud’s lap and dramatically threw the alligator at Zack. It caught in his hair and he yelled.

“Not my hair! That’s where all my super strength comes from! Powers. . . fading. . . feeling. . . weak. . . ugh.” Zack dropped his turtle and, closing his eyes, flopped dramatically backwards. He lay very still for several seconds, then stuck his tongue out, signifying his death.

Aerith chose that moment to make her presence known. “Good job Lily! Thanks to you, all the turtles under Zack’s evil mind control spell have been set free!”

Lily cheered and scrambled off Cloud’s lap, picking up Zack’s discarded turtle. “He’s a good turtle now!! Huh, what’s that Mr. Turtle?” She held the paper figure close to her ear. “Zack kidnapped Mrs. Turtle, and hid her away in Marshmallow Mountain!? Oh no! How will we ever climb such a sticky mountain!?” She gasped. “I know! Billy!! I need your helicopter!”

“No, go away!”

“But Billy, Mr. Turtle needs to get up Marshmallow Mountain! Come on! You can be the pilot!”

Lily stepped on Zack’s stomach (his pained "oof” didn’t bother her in the slightest) and hurried across the room to Billy.

Zack sat up, idly rubbing his stomach. “Gotta love kids, right?”

Aerith knelt down on the floor next to Cloud, smiling. “What brings you down here Zack? Trying to convince the kids to color your room after all?”

Cloud leaned forward and gently pulled the paper alligator out of Zack’s hair. Zack smiled, gazing into his eyes like he was looking at a lost treasure. “Thanks. . .Cloud.”

Cloud blushed and adverted his eyes, causing Zack’s grin to widen. He pulled him into a headlock and started giving him a noogie.

“Say there Spike, why don’t you teach me how to make a chocobo? I bet you’re GREAT at chocobos.”

Cloud wriggled free and ran a hand through his hair, as if Zack had messed it up. “Why would I be good at making chocobos?”

“Because of your hair, of course! It’s all blond and fluffy, like a chocobo.” Cloud scowled so he added, “A cute chocobo.”

He was still scowling, but his cheeks turned pink and he ducked his head, keeping his gaze on his lap. “Yours looks like a porcupine,” he mumbled.

“A porcupine? Hmm.” Zack ran a hand through his hair, seeming to consider the comparison. “Alright, that’s fair. I guess it’s kind of. . . porcupiney. But you know,” he leaned forward so that his face was dangerously close to Cloud’s, “I heard somewhere that chocobos and porcupines get along really _really_ well.”

If Cloud was blushing before, he was positively on fire now. He leaned back, trying desperately to maintain his personal space AND his scowl. “Where would you hear—” he swallowed thickly. “Where would you hear something like that? Chocobos and porcupines are nothing alike.”

Zack leaned even closer, leaving Cloud dangerously close of being flattened to the floor. “Hmm, where did I hear it? I forget. Is it that hard to believe though? A chocobo and a porcupine, best friends? Maybe more?” he all but whispered, wiggling his eyebrows.

“I-I have to go!” Cloud exclaimed, shimmying away from him. As soon as he was far back enough that he could stand without bumping into Zack, he rose and practically ran from the room.

Some of the children were staring.

Aerith crawled around the kiddie table so she could sit closer to Zack. “Zack,” she whispered, “what on _earth_ was that all about?”

Zack sat up straight and gave her a goofy smile, very reminiscent of the one he wore the other day. “His name’s Cloud. I had to bug him for _two hours_ before he would tell me. Cloud. That’s a really nice name, isn’t it?”

“Um, yeah, I guess. Cloud Strife. It’s unique.”

Zack perked up. “That’s his last name? Strife? Cloud Strife.” He sighed. “That’s an _awesome_ name.”

Aerith raised an eyebrow, then cast a quick look at the children (some were still staring, eyeing Zack warily). “Zack, would you take a walk with me?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Walking’s good.” They both stood up and left the playroom, heading toward the courtyard. Cloud was nowhere to be seen.

Zack immediately started gushing. “Yeah, so I was bugging him this morning, trying to get him to talk to me. He kept hiding from me, it was pretty cute.” He laughed. “So I was kind of following him around, trying to corner him—Don’t give me that look! I wasn’t trying to _attack_ him or anything. I just wanted to hang out. ANYWAY, I was following him around and I saw him go into the kids’ room. So naturally I followed him, cause I figured he wouldn’t leave the kids so soon, even with me around.” He beamed down at her. “I think he likes me. Did you get that vibe, cause I don’t know if it’s just me being hopeful or if he actually likes me? He’s really cute, isn’t he? Why didn’t you introduce me to him before?” His face fell. “He has a boyfriend, doesn’t he? Dammit, I KNEW he was too good to be true! Who is it!? How long have they been dating? Do I stand a chance!?”

“Zack, Zack, calm down! He doesn’t have a boyfriend!”

“Girlfriend!”

“No!”

“Oh. . .” He smiled. “Good. Great! That’s perfect! Cause, you know, I don’t have a boyfriend either, and if _he_ doesn’t have a boyfriend, and _I_ don’t have a boyfriend. Well, need I say more?”

“Hold on Zack! Can you catch me up on the situation a little bit? You’re telling me you _like_ Cloud?”

“Uh, duh! Come one Aerith, isn’t it obvious?”

Obvious? She hadn’t even known he was gay until today. “Well, yeah, but, since when? You just found out his name this morning, right?”

“Since yesterday! When he came with you to my room. Man Aerith, he was like,” he bit his bottom lip, “like I don’t know! Otherworldly! It was like all the lights went off around me, but there was this giant spotlight right on _him_. And then when he _spoke_. Aerith, his voice is like music! You hear it, right?”

“Uh, I guess. . .”

“And his eyes! I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life!”

Zack was smitten. 100%, head over heels, smitten. With _Cloud Strife_. HER shy, antisocial, insecure, ‘never ever smiles’ Cloud. She started giggling.

Zack looked slightly offended. “Hey, what’s so funny? You don’t believe me, do you? Look, I know love at first sight is kind of farfetched, but that’s no reason to laugh! I’m really serious, Aerith!”

“I know, I know! I’m sorry Zack, it’s just,” she kept giggling, “you guys are just so _different_.”

Zack’s frown deepened.

She got control of her giggles and patted his arm. “I’m sorry Zack, I shouldn’t laugh. Opposites attract, after all.”

Zack was still frowning. “Yeah. Yeah, they do.”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on Zack, don’t be mad!” She stuck her fingers in the corners of his mouth and forced him to smile. “Tell you what, I’m pretty good friends with Cloud. What if I tried to, you know, help you two along? I’ll put in a good word for you.”

He was beaming at her now, so she removed her fingers. “Really!? You’d do that?” She nodded and he grabbed her into a bear hug. “Thank Aerith! You’re the greatest! Anything you need, just ask, and I’ll be there, I promise!”

She pushed at his chest. “Now, now, that’s enough. Cloud will get jealous,” she teased.

Zack was standing up straight in a second, glancing around. “Why, is he here? Did you see him?” He spun around to check behind him.

She laughed and started walking ahead without him. “You are _so_ hopeless Zack.”

“Hey! Hey, that’s not funny! Come back here, Aerith!”

_________________________

Aerith did put in a good work for Zack (several good words in fact), but Cloud didn’t seem interested. She wasn’t really surprised, but she was still a little sad, mostly for Zack’s sake. They _would_ have made a cute couple. She had to face facts though. Chocobos and porcupines really _didn’t_ mix well, no matter what Zack said.

She had to give Zack credit for trying though. It seemed like every time she turned a corner, she came across either a Cloud on the run or a Zack in hot pursuit. She figured it was only a matter of time before Cloud snapped at him. Currently though, he was still a flustered mess over the situation.

On Monday, Lucretia (kind person that she was) let him hide behind the nurse’s station on the fourth floor. Each floor had its own station, for convenience’s sake. It consisted of a medium sized circular desk, with two parallel openings at the front and back. Aerith had been heading toward the station to update Miss Kisaragi’s file (turns out she was hiding her medicine under her tongue, then spitting it out later) when she witnessed Zack stealthily crawling across the floor and through the back entrance. Seconds later Cloud was scrambling out the front entrance, desperately trying to get on his feet while Zack struggled to grab his ankles and yank him back. In the end, Cloud got away and the two went sprinting off down wing A.

On Tuesday, Aerith took poor Mr. Hojo (snotty old man. . .) out to the courtyard for a little fresh air. She didn’t expect to see several nurses gathered around the tree, trying to pull some crazy lunatic. . . oh, wait, it was Zack. He was trying to climb up the tree.

“Do you mind if we take a walk over to the flowerbed, Mr. Hojo? I think something’s going on under the tree…”

Mr. Hojo minded, but he tended to mumble when he talked so Aerith pretended she heard him wrong and gently led him over to the crowd of nurses.

“Zack? What are you doing?”

Zack paused upon hearing her to look over his shoulder and the nurses seized the opportunity to pull him down. He gave a yelp of surprise as two of them grabbed his arms and another hooked her arms under his to restrain him.

“Come on, this isn’t fair! This has to be against some law or something!”

“Mr. Fair, you are being totally unreasonable!”

“Yes! You are NOT respecting the privacy of the other patients at all. This is unacceptable!”

Before Aerith could even bat an eyelash, Cloud jumped down from the tree. It was a messy jump, and he probably would have hurt himself if Mr. Hojo hadn’t been there to break his fall. Thankfully, he was.

Cloud got off the old man, shouting an apology as he ran past Aerith and toward the entrance to the hospital.

Mr. Hojo started to have a seizure, distracting Aerith and the nurses so that Zack could break free and pursue his ‘prey.’ When Mr. Hojo was finally back in his room and all taken care of, the staff decided to give Zack the worse punishment they could possibly think of. They sent Tseng down to his room to give him a lecture. Cloud, they decided, fell into the category of ‘victim’ and was let off the hook.

On Wednesday, Aerith caught Cloud hiding in one of the supply closets. She asked him about Tuesday and he explained that he couldn’t get any peace and quiet in his room, because Zack was always bugging him to be let in, so he had snuck out to (and then up) the tree to be alone. But then Zack found him. That was pretty much it. He then made Aerith promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone he was in there (most of the cleaning staff already knew, but they were being cool about it), and she left him. An hour and a half later, Aerith saw Zack crouched next to the closet, feeding Cloud pick-up lines through the crack under the door. Everyone let them be.

This type of cat and mouse behavior went on for two weeks. Then Cloud had an attack.

Despite the fact that Cloud was hooked to an IV, hardly ever conscious (and hacking up blood when he _was_ conscious), and sporting a nasty fever, Zack seemed to be the more miserable of the two. He had been chasing Cloud through the personality disorder hall of the psych ward when Cloud started slowing down. Zack caught him before they even reached the wing for borderline personality disorder, and he immediately noticed the fine sheen of sweat on his brow and his ever so slightly labored breathing. He scooped him up in his arms before Cloud could protest and informed the closest nurse that he was about to have an attack (naturally, he would know the signs), then brought him to his room. As soon as he lay him down on the bed, the nurses kicked him out of the room and he hadn’t been allowed to see Cloud since. That was five days ago.

Aerith creaked open Zack’s door and poked her head inside.

“Zack? Can I come in?”

Zack was lying backwards on his bed, on his stomach, and was trying to pick the threads out of a sock. It appeared the sock was too well made for him, however, as all the threads were still in place.

Aerith stepped inside and closed the door. “Zack?”

He grunted and moved over a bit, making room for her on the bed. She gingerly sat down next to him and ran a hand through his hair. He dropped his sock and turned his gaze to her.

“How is he?”

“A bit better. He was awake for a full half hour this morning, and he didn’t cough up any blood!”

Zack didn’t seem as enthusiastic at the news. “Can he have visitors?”

Her smile faltered. “No, Zack. He can’t.”

He started picking at his sock threads again.

“Oh Zack! Cheer up! Tell you what! Cloud can’t have visitors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to him!”

Zack spared her a glance. “I don’t think talking under the door will work this time, Aerith.”

“No, no! Cloud can’t see people, but he can accept gifts any time! Write him a letter! I’ll give it to him, I promise!”

Zack slowly put the sock down. “Really? You’d do that for me? Will he want to read it? I mean, I know he feels REALLY bad. I don’t want to bother him.” He bit his bottom lip, and hesitantly glanced up at her. “If I picked him flowers. . . would you give them to him too?”

She nodded and he perked up a bit more.

“And, you know. . . Miss Jenova owes me for that time I helped her find Denzel when he escaped from his room.” He grinned. “She’s _terrible_ with children. Anyway, she’d probably help me make something in the kitchen, right? Does Cloud like chocolates? Cake? . . . Pancakes?”

Aerith giggled. “I’m sure she’d _love_ to help you Zack. And yes, yes, no.”

“No what? Pancakes?”

She shook her head. “Cloud’s a waffle person.”

Zack hummed in thought, seemingly content to learn something new about his crush.

Aerith stood up. “I’m going to get going now. Remember, if you want me to give Cloud anything, anything at all, just ask.”

He sat up and beamed at her. “Thanks Aerith. You’re a really great friend, you know?”

“Thanks Zack, you are too.”

That night, Zack had a letter ready for her, along with a bouquet of flowers. The flowers were all yellow, except for two blue ones and one orange. Zack explained that he arranged them to look like a chocobo’s face. Aerith thought that was cute.

She went straight to Cloud and, after waiting twenty minutes for him to stop dry heaving (she held his bangs back, just in case he decided to throw up more than air), she gave him his presents. He stared at the letter, blinking his beautiful luminous, bloodshot eyes in slight confusion. He set the letter on his lap and took the bouquet, gazing down at it, expression unchanging. Aerith couldn’t help but notice how the yellow petals complimented the yellow-greenish hue his skin had taken on in the past week.

“It looks like a chocobo,” he commented dryly (Literally speaking. His voice was like sandpaper).

“It’s supposed to! They’re both from Zack.”

“From Zack?” He tilted the bouquet a bit in his hands, then leaned down slightly to smell them. His expression still remained the same.

Aerith found a vase and took the flowers from him, making sure she didn’t disrupt the chocobo design. She turned away from the sink to find him gazing at the letter again.

When Zack asked her the next day if Cloud seemed happy to hear from him, she didn’t have the heart to tell him how unenthusiastic he seemed. Instead, she covered by telling him that Cloud recognized the bouquet as a chocobo without her pointing it out. He seemed pleased with that.

She had work to do, so she could only talk to Zack quickly and Cloud not at all. A little after three though, she found some time and, after popping in to visit Cid and Barret, she checked in on Cloud.

He was asleep when she walked in, but not peacefully. His breathing was ragged and his whole body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. She sat down next to him and pushed his damp bangs off his forehead. She could feel the heat radiating off his skin like a furnace. Or a nuclear blast. Or the _sun_.

He woke up after only ten minutes and blearily gazed at her. He didn’t even bother trying to sit up.

“Hey Cloud. Can I get you anything? Water maybe?”

Cloud’s head made a slight incline and she stood, getting a glass from the cupboard under the sink and filling it before returning. She helped him sit up and handed him the glass, keeping a firm grasp on it to assure he didn’t drink it too fast. As usual, he wasn’t terribly appreciative.

He finished the glass and went to work trying to mop the sweat off his face with his shirt. Unfortunately, his shirt was already drenched in sweat, so he had to give up rather quickly on that task.

He opened his mouth and made a pathetic rasping noise, then coughed and tried again. “Aerith, can I ask you a favor?” Still raspy, but understandable.

“Of course Cloud. What is it?”

She expected him to ask her to help him change out of his horrible, sweaty, disgusting clothes and into something clean. He surprised her when he (slowly) leaned toward his bed stand and opened the top drawer. He pulled out a piece of paper, folded over several times, and handed it to her, his usually steady hand trembling ever so slightly from the effects of his fever.

“It’s for Zack. A reply. Will you give it to him?”

She took the letter with a nod, eyes wide. “Sure Cloud. I can do that. That’s very. . . nice of you, to write him back. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”

She couldn’t tell if the red staining Cloud’s cheeks was from his fever, or if he was blushing. She decided not to ask and, after making sure he was comfortable and getting him a cold compress for his forehead, she left the room and made a (very short) beeline to Zack’s.

Of course he had to pick _that_ particular time to not be in his room. She left the note on his bed stand. If she saw him, she’d let him know.

She did find him, three hours later, in Barret’s room.

“I’m telling you, it’d be sooo much cooler than a regular hand! No one could ever disarm you, unless they, you know, cut off your arm. But what are the chances of that happening?” There was an awkward pause. “I mean, what are the chances of it happening AGAIN? Lighting doesn’t strike twice!”

“You some kind of moron!? There ain’t NO WAY I’d be doing some stupid thing like that!”

“But you’d be like a cyborg! You could be a super hero! Barretborg. No! Barretbot! Barrbot!”

Aerith stepped further into the room and cleared her throat just as Barret was lifting his hand to whack Zack upside the head.

“Aerith! Hey!”

Barrett lowered his hand and nodded to her. “‘lo, Aerith.”

“Hi Zack, Barret.”

“How’s—”

She cut him off. “Cloud’s doing okay. He’s fighting off a fever right now. He wrote you a letter Zack. I put it in your room for you.”

Zack was staring at her like she’d grown an extra head. “He what?”

She rolled her eyes. “He wrote you a letter. He must have been feeling better last night or something. Anyway, it’s in your—”

“I’ll see you later Barrbot, I gotta go!” Zack said, jumping up and practically sprinting out of the room. Barret yelled a few profanities after him, but Zack seemed unfazed.

From that day on, Cloud and Zack set a trend. Aerith found herself delivering letters back and forth between their rooms every day. She didn’t have the heart to read them, since she figured they were personal, but she certainly was curious. Zack nearly wet himself in excitement with each letter she delivered and, if she didn’t know better, she would have said Cloud was enthusiastic to receive them as well. Once, she caught him reading one and she could have _sworn_ she saw him smile (she figured it was just the light playing tricks on her though).

After six weeks (Zack gave him a new bouquet for each week), Cloud was finally allowed to have visitors. Zack (with the help of Miss Jenova) made him a batch of chocolates and Aerith bought him a heart-shaped box to put them in. Aerith let him in first thing in the morning then let the two of them be alone. She was curious though, and she couldn’t help but stand by the door an extra minute to listen.

At first all she could hear was indistinguishable mumbling, but then Zack shouted, “What’s wrong? Do they taste bad?”

“Zack, these things are rocks. . .”

“What!? That can’t be!”

There was a pause then, “Ow! Holy shit, my teeth!”

She thought she heard a laugh, but dismissed it. Why would Zack laugh when he hurt himself?

“Cloud, I’m soooo sorry! I don’t know what I did wrong! I did everything Miss Jenova said!”

She definitely heard laughter that time, and she couldn’t believe it. Cloud? Laughing!?

Zack joined in moments later and soon the two of them were laughing uncontrollably. Cloud calmed down first, gasping for breath.

“Well, I guess,” a heave of air, “it’s the thought that counts,” he tapered off with a giggle.

Zack started gasping for breath as well. “I really am sorry Cloud. I wanted to do something nice. I almost broke your teeth instead. . .”

“It’s fine Zack. They _look_ nice. And you tried,” there was a pause then he said quietly (Aerith had to strain her ears), “Thank you.”

“Hey, don’t mention—”

They both went quiet and Aerith walked away from the door, a large grin on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Tseng's last name, I typed helicopter into Google translate. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> When I first wrote this, I had never stayed in a hospital before (I have hence stayed overnight once, but as a guest they lovingly didn't kick out after visitor hours). Hope my hospital ignorance doesn't shine through TOO badly!  
> I'll try to get the next chapters proofread and posted quickly!


	2. Letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aerith's about to get all Nancy Drew up in here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who may forget, or never played the original FFVII, Priscilla is a young girl who is friends with a dolphin. (SPOILERS) The dolphin sort of headbutts Cloud into the air so he can access a high area. And Priscilla gives you Shiva after Cloud saves her via CPR minigame, and she vows to marry him. The OG game is magical, ngl.  
> Anyway, that's who the main character of Chocobo Chicks is named after, lol.

_Dear Cloud,_

_I’m sorry if this is kind of crappy. I can’t remember ever writing a letter before. Grade school, maybe. But, I figured, horrible pain aside, you’re probably super bored! I know I am whenever I have an attack! So, hopefully this takes your mind off things for a while, you know? I’ve been thinking about you a lot (don’t roll your eyes!) and I realize I’m not really being fair. I mean, love at first sight doesn’t have to go both ways, right? So, I thought I’d tell you ALL about yours truly! Letters probably aren’t the best way to get to know someone, but hey, a hospital probably isn’t the best place to try to get a boyfriend either. I’m unconventional! Haha! Anyway, I was born in a place called Gongaga. . ._

It took Cloud an additional week to get completely 'able-to-leave-the-room' better, and Zack had been by his side the entire time. It was astounding to see the difference in their relationship, especially on Cloud’s end. Aerith could only assume the letters (most likely love letters, now that she thought about it) were the main reason why. She knew they didn’t throw them away yet, but neither of them would let her read them. When she asked if she could, Zack had frantically yelled, “No way! These are for _our_ eyes only!” while Cloud had blushed and looked away, quietly mumbling that he’d prefer if she didn’t. She asked several more times, and even tried to trick them into allowing her to read them, but eventually she just had to give up and accept that they were personal. Even if it _did_ bug the crap out of her that she didn’t fully understand how their relationship started.

Unfortunately, three days afterwards, the inevitable happened. The repairs to Zack’s original room were completed. Aerith walked in to find Zack talking to Tseng.

“Um, that’s okay Tseng, err, I mean Dr. um, Tseng.”

Aerith giggled and Tseng gave her a look.

“I like my new room. I’m cool staying here.”

“Mr. Fair (Zack made a face), 38-C is your assigned room. It’s in the system, and changing that would be bothersome. It’s bad enough you’ve been here as long as you have. In the event of an emergency—”

“Blah blah blah. In the event of an emergency, do you really expect me to just sit in my room waiting for help? Who cares what room I’m in? I’m happy here.”

Tseng frowned deeply. “I thought you _liked_ your old room.”

Zack shrugged. “It was okay…”

“There’s no window here. If memory serves, you threw quite a fit at the loss of it.”

“Yeeeah. Turns out the view from here isn’t all that bad though.” He grinned deviously. “Gorgeous, actually. I’m content.”

“Well I’m not. You’re moving.” That said, Tseng turned on his heels, his coat billowing out behind him. Zack stuck out his tongue.

“Zack, going back to your old room wouldn’t be that bad, would it?” Aerith said, stepping toward him.

Zack gave her one of his ‘are you stupid?’ looks. She rolled her eyes.

“Cloud isn’t going anywhere (he interrupted, “That’s the problem!” but she ignored him), you can still see him. You’ll just be in different corridors. That’s not so bad, right?”

“Yes!”

She sighed. “And _why_ is it such a problem?”

“Because!” He pouted. “I wanna be close to him.”

“Zack…”

“What if there’s a fire?! I’d have to run all the way down corridor C, through the lobby, down corridor D, and then I’d have to try to find his room through the fire and smoke! And you know, Cloud would probably be doing the _same thing_ , so he would end up in my room and I would be in his and we’d both end up dying! Alone!”

“Wouldn’t you see each other in the lobby or the halls?”

“Uh, smoke, Aerith! I already said that!”

“Zack—”

“And what if he has a bad dream?! I won’t be nearby to comfort him!”

“The doors are locked at night Zack, you wouldn’t—”

“And if I leave, someone else is going to be in this room eventually. What if they bug him?!”

“Like you did?”

“Yes! But he wouldn’t think it was cute if someone else did it!”

Aerith grinned. “He thought all that stuff you did was cute?”

Zack’s frustrated expression melted into one of embarrassment. “Well, he didn’t actually say so. He said I was annoying, but I’m pretty sure that’s Cloud speak for cute…”

Aerith raised an eyebrow. “I see. I’ll have to remember that.”

“Anyway, the point is, I cannot, and _will not_ , move from this room!” He paused for a minute, contemplating to himself. “Unless I’m moving to his room. Being roomies would be nice.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“I’ll see what I can do Zack,” she said with a sigh, “Just don’t get your hopes up.”

“Alright Aerith! You’re the greatest!”

She did do her best. But when Tseng Zhíshengji was involved, someone’s best usually wasn’t enough. And so it was that Zack found himself (miserably) back in room 38-C.

Despite Zack’s misery (Cloud seemed fine), their newfound distance didn’t affect their relationship at all, just like Aerith predicted. In fact, the only difference that seemed to come from the move was that all the members of the hospital came to realize they were, well, dating, in a matter of speaking. They were constantly seen walking to and from each other’s rooms, both together and alone. Aerith was still shocked every time Cloud crossed through the lobby from his corridor to Zack’s, then returned minutes later talking quietly with the taller man and holding hands. It was just so. . . odd, to see Cloud actually going out of his way to see someone. He was usually so stoic. This new Cloud seemed to always be blushing, (and even weirder) sporting a small smile, and (this was the absolute _weirdest_ ) he was being more social.

The change in Zack wasn’t as weird as it was funny. His normal ‘in charge’ attitude seemed to melt in the presence of Cloud. He would follow him around like a lost puppy (Angeal actually made a comment on it, and soon had most of the other patients calling him ‘puppy’ or ‘pup.’ Zack was too love struck to comprehend what the new nickname meant). He was tripping over his feet a lot more often, and where before he was constantly in a state of insane happiness with boundless energy, he was now in a state of insane giddiness with boundless energy. It didn’t sound like something that would be a noticeable difference, but everyone that knew Zack would attest that it was (particularly Cid, who claimed puppy love bothered his cough).

Sooner than anyone realized, their days-old relationship turned into a months-old one, but instead of the puppy love fading away like Cid swore it would, the two of them seemed to fall even more in love. They were almost completely inseparable. Aerith had never seen either of them so happy (which was saying something, because Zack was a _very_ happy person), and watching them was almost mesmerizing.

In _Chocobo Chicks_ , Priscilla found the love of her life in episode five of season one, in the form of the tall, dark, and handsome dolphin trainer ( _magical_ dolphins, naturally) Rude. Growing up, Aerith thought the romance between Priscilla and Rude was the most beautiful and real thing she would ever lay eyes upon, and she could only dream of having a relationship as true as they did.

It was kind of a silly thing to think of at that current moment, glancing out into the hallway from Mr. Heidegger’s room in corridor B (Mr. Heidegger was well known to have visitors sneak food to him, despite the diet the hospital put him on and, as a result, had to be closely monitored). His door was wide open, so when Zack and Cloud came speeding down the hall in wheelchairs, she really couldn’t help but notice.

She stood up and rushed out of the room, ignoring Mr. Heideggar’s exclamations about her rudeness. She got out into the hall just in time to see a male nurse named Reeve scream and lunge out of the way of Zack’s chair.

“Sorry man!” Zack yelled distractedly, not slowing down in the slightest or even glancing behind him to see if Reeve was okay. Aerith hurried over and helped him up, then rushed after her two friends.

They reached the lobby and yelling erupted as they tried to navigate their way to another corridor (both seemed to be rather sloppy at steering).

“Sephiroth is the finish line!” Cloud yelled, making a beeline for corridor C.

“What!? That’s,” Zack paused for a breath, “cheating!” He turned his chair around and made a frantic effort to catch up. Soon they were neck and neck and speeding down corridor C, where Sephiroth was walking with Genesis. Standing at the beginning of the hallway, Aerith realized there wasn’t really anything she could do. So she stopped, and she watched. In the lobby, a crowd formed behind her.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. “Zackary, what on earth…?” his eyes narrowed when he spotted Cloud. “You…” he sneered. Genesis gracefully stepped out of the way, pressing himself against the wall and watching.

“Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul, pride is lost, wings stripped away…”

Sephiroth turned to give his friend a hard look. “Genesis, I can assure you that _Loveless_ has nothing to do—”

He was cut off when Cloud went crashing into him. Startled, Sephiroth tried to catch himself on the chair and ended up half straddling the other man and gripping the top of the chair. Cloud and Zack both came to a halt.

“…the end is nigh,” Genesis finished with a small smirk.

Zack stood from his chair. “We had to _hit_ him!? I thought we just had to ride past him! That’s not fair babe, I want a rematch!”

“Get off of me!” Cloud sneered, glaring up at the taller man. Sephiroth sneered back.

“You tried to _run me over_ with a _wheelchair_.”

“You tried to push me out of a window last Friday!” Cloud retorted, squirming in the chair.

Genesis rolled his eyes. “That was FOUR days ago, Strife. Get over it.”

“Wait, wait, wait, you tried to _what!?_ ” Zack yelled, striding over and pulling Sephiroth off his boyfriend. Sephiroth slapped his hand away and Cloud lunged at him.

The crowd behind Aerith came to life and suddenly doctors and nurses were rushing toward the scene. Zack pulled Cloud into his arms, keeping a firm grip on him while Genesis and Tseng restrained Sephiroth. The two continued sneering at each other.

“You stole my shampoo!” Cloud yelled, gritting his teeth.

Sephiroth huffed. “That’s a fine accusation, coming from a belt thief.”

“You took my jeans first!”

“Like I could fit into any of your petite, girl outfits. Besides, you put _ketchup_ on my chair.”

Zack laughed. “Good one babe! When he stood up I bet it looked like he had—”

Sephiroth glared and he shut his mouth, murmuring a small ‘sorry.’

“You put tacks on my shower floor!”

“Oh? And are you forgetting about the time you put mayonnaise in my boots?”

“I’d rather have mayonnaise on my feet than _tacks_!”

“Well perhaps if you would stop stealing the key to my room. . .”

“You stole mine first!”

“You _misplaced_ it. I was simply returning it.”

“You ripped Boco’s head off!”

“Boco?” Genesis questioned.

Zack ran a hand through Cloud’s hair. “It’s alright babe. He’s in a better place…”

“Stuffed chocobos don’t _go_ to better places, Zackary. They go to the dump.”

“Just like your mom!”

Zack started to laugh (Aerith wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be horrified), but thought better of it when he realized Genesis had decided to laugh too and, in doing so, had let go of Sephiroth. Tseng held Sephiroth back by himself just long enough (ie: about two seconds) for Zack to pick Cloud up (Cloud squeaked and instinctively wrapped his legs around his waist) and bolt toward the lobby. Sephiroth took chase and the crowd (wisely) parted ways for them.

Sephiroth was sneering insults at Cloud as he ran, and Cloud was hurling them back from over Zack’s shoulder. Zack veered down corridor D and soon all three of them were out of sight, Cloud and Sephiroth’s arguing voices slowly fading away. The crowd listened quietly until there was a distant slam, followed by a long series of bangs. The bangs stopped and then all went silent.

“Alright everyone, nothing to see here. Get back to work; patients, back to your rooms,” Tseng commanded, taking control of the situation.

Aerith left to make sure the boys were still alive (she had her doubts). She found Zack and Cloud holed up in Cloud’s room, but Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.

Zack hesitantly let her in (she had to promise three times that Sephiroth wasn’t around), then shut the door quickly behind her. Cloud was lying on his back backwards on the bed, hugging a pillow to his chest while watching her upside down. Zack strolled over and perched on the edge of the bed next to him.

“Well?” Aerith questioned, tapping her foot.

“Well what?” Zack questioned back, grinning widely.

“Well, what was all that about!?”

Zack shrugged. “Just a wheelchair race. All in good fun.”

“Cloud ran Sephiroth over in said race, if you didn’t notice, Zack.”

“Yeah, and I got to save him!” Zack exclaimed, leaning down to nuzzle Cloud’s neck.

“Zaaaack!” Cloud was trying hard to frown while he pushed Zack’s face away. He gave up on the frown and let himself laugh, but hid his face behind his pillow.

“Oh no you don’t!” Zack clambered on top of him and started tickling his sides. Cloud gave a startled cry and decked Zack in the face with his pillow, then pushed him off the bed. He rolled onto his stomach, gasping for breath and still giggling a bit, then peaked over the side of the bed to watch Zack.

“Owwww! Cloudy, you hurt me!”

Cloud grinned. “Did not. Suck it up.”

“Did too!”

Cloud raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? What hurts then, crybaby?”

Zack sat up. “My neck. Right here. Look at it, I bet it’s red.”

Frowning, Cloud scooted a little closer to the bed’s edge and leaned down, peering at Zack’s neck.

“Looks fine to me.”

“No, no, look closer!” Zack side glanced to Aerith and gave her a wink that didn’t go unnoticed by his boyfriend.

Cloud glanced up, no doubt about to accuse him of planning something sneaky when Zack pressed their lips together. Cloud pulled back, blushing heavily and buried his face in his pillow.

Zack laughed and kissed the top of his head. “Isn’t he cute, Aerith? My dear little chocobo!”

Leaning back against the door, watching them goof off, Aerith thought again of Priscilla and Rude. They were a cute couple, of course. They were created for each other, after all.

“I loooove you Cloud!”

Cloud peeked up from his hiding place. “I love you too, Zack,” he said quietly, leaning forward to kiss Zack’s nose. Zack smiled gently and rested his forehead against Cloud’s, rubbing their noses together.

Cute, but cartoons, nonetheless. What was right in front of her was the real deal. This was true love.

Smiling, Aerith noiselessly exited the room, leaving the boys to themselves.

_Dear Zack,_

_If you’re trying to make me feel bad about you twisting your ankle while chasing me, it’s not going to work. You should have been more careful._

_I wouldn’t know anything about all that. I never had a father. When I was really young, I used to ask my mom when he was coming home. She told me she didn’t know, but she hoped it was soon. It didn’t take me long to realize hoping was stupid. I’m a bastard, and that’s that. It doesn’t really bother me, but when I was a kid, I got teased for it a lot. Divorce is practically a crime in Nibelheim, and having children out of wedlock is unforgivable. Nibelheim is where I’m from, by the way._

_I’m addressing the topics you wrote to me about in the wrong order. Sorry. I’m trying to stop but, I’ve never written a letter either. I never had anyone to write too. I guess that makes both of us unconventional. . ._

“Did you see the new guy in Barrett’s room?”

Aerith glanced over at Zack, who was lying in the grass with his head on Cloud’s lap while he helped her pick flowers. Every time Cloud leaned forward too far to reach a flower Zack would kiss his stomach, causing him to inevitably start blushing and stuttering while batting Zack away. It’d happened six times so far.

Aerith shook her head. “No, but Lucretia mentioned him to me. His name is Vincent, I believe.”

Cloud nodded. “Yeah. Vincent Valentine.”

Zack frowned. “I miss Barrbot. Cid does too, you can tell by how he goes out of his way to yell at the children.”

Barrett checked out of the hospital two months prior. Everyone was glad he was doing well, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t missed. Corridor C seemed quieter without him.

“Have you heard anything from him?” Cloud asked, glancing in her direction.

Aerith nodded. “Yeah, I’m friends with his neighbor and she said he’s doing really well. Marlene just started school a few weeks ago, and he was beside himself with worry.”

Zack laughed. “That’s Barrbot for you!” There was a small silence before he added, “He’s a good dad.”

Cloud hummed in agreement. Aerith smiled and nodded. “Yeah, he really is.”

Zack reached up for Cloud’s arm and started tracing patterns on his skin. “What are we gonna do when we leave here, babe?”

Cloud looked down, surprise etched on his face. “When we leave?”

“Yeah. It’s probably something we should start thinking about, you know?”

There was a long silence and Aerith did her best to pretend she wasn’t there. Finally Cloud quietly said, “Yeah, you’re right. We should.”

She glanced over to see Zack smiling broadly. “Right! So, first we need to pick a place to live.”

Cloud crinkled his nose. “As long as it’s not Nibelheim, I’m fine.”

Zack laughed. “Fine with me. I don’t think I’d want to live next to an active Mako reactor anyway.”

Cloud rolled his eyes. “It’s not like it’s _in_ the town. It’s up on the mountain. Mako reactors don’t bother anyone.”

“I don’t know. There’s a rundown one in Gongaga. I always thought it looked like something that would be noisy if it worked,” Zack replied, shrugging one shoulder. “What about Costa del Sol?”

“. . .isn’t that a sand dune?”

Aerith couldn’t help herself from laughing along with Zack at that one. “It’s a _beach_ Cloudy. A beautiful one. Haven’t you ever been?”

Cloud shook his head. “I don’t want to live on a beach. They sound hot.”

“Oh, right. Wouldn’t want Miss Shiva to melt, would we?” Zack teased, reaching up to pinch his cheek. “You probably burn soooo badly, don’t you?”

Cloud bat his hand away. “You have no idea.”

“Alright, alright, no beaches then,” Zack said, laughing,

“What’s wrong with living in Midgar?” Aerith questioned, hesitant to join the conversation.

“Nah, we don’t like cities,” Zack answered, “Somewhere rural would be nice, right babe?”

Cloud nodded. “What about Gongaga? You liked it there, didn’t you?”

Zack perked up. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“No, why would I?”

“Well, it gets humid. . .”

Cloud raised an eyebrow. “As long as it’s not a beach, I can handle it. Buy me an air conditioner.”

Zack sat up and threw an arm around Cloud’s shoulder, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Anything for you babe.”

He stayed like that, leaning against him, while the two of them continued with their plans. Zack’s parents had visited several times since he started dating Cloud, and they both adored him. Zack was sure if they moved to Gongaga his parents wouldn’t be far behind them. Cloud said he didn’t mind.

Their plans were nice, sweet really, but Aerith couldn’t help the way her stomach twisted into knots as she listened. She’d never heard Zack or Cloud ever talk about _leaving_ the hospital. After all, they weren’t exactly the kind of patients you said ‘get better soon’ to. Nobody even knew what was wrong with them. Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, Yuffie, Zack, Cloud, and so many more of the patients on the fourth floor. It was always just assumed…

“Zack, you can’t just _be_ a doctor. You have to have a degree.”

“Oh come on! I’ve been in the hospital for like, seven years. That should count for something.”

Cloud shook his head. “No, Zack. It doesn’t.”

Zack sighed. “Well, we could always be porn stars—Ow! With each other! Exclusive porn sta—Ow, ow! Alright, alright, no porn, no porn!” Cloud stopped hitting him and Zack, who had been protecting his head with his arms, slowly put them down. “Nothing wrong with a little ‘behind-closed-doors’ porn, if you get what I mean,” Zack said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Cloud went to hit him again but Zack caught his hand, interlacing their fingers before crushing his lips to Cloud’s.

…that they would never leave Midgar Hospital again.

_Dear Cloud,_

_I wish I had grown up in Nibelheim. I would have beaten up everyone that picked on you, and when you got pushed in that river, I would have dove in after you. We could’ve sat together in a tree and watched the snow fall, or gone ice skating. It would have been like a fairy tale! (How GAY do I sound? Hahahaha! Just imagine my voice saying all that, and I promise it’ll sound more suave.)_

_Haha, sounds like you were a mama’s boy! Don’t be mad, don’t be mad! I love my ma a lot too. You’ll have to meet her sometime, she’ll totally love you. I wish I could have met your mother. She sounds like a fantastic woman. You’ll have to show me some of those awesome cooking skills she passed on to you sometime (like, maybe after we move in together and live happily ever after!)_

_Aww, Boco sounds awesome! Your mom must have been pretty crafty to make something like that! I never had a favorite stuffed toy as a kid. I suck, right? Do you still have him? You said she gave him to you while you were in the hospital…_

The next day, Aerith got to meet Mr. Valentine herself, but only for a few minutes. Lucretia, for whatever reason, was going out of her way to take care of nearly all his needs single-handedly. Aerith was with her at the nurse’s station while she updated his chart, and she couldn’t help but glance it over quickly.

“Mako poisoning? Is that even possible?” Mako was everywhere. It practically ran the world! If it was possible to get poisoned from it, wouldn’t everyone be sick? They’d have to stop using it.

Lucretia glanced up. “It was actually a very common thing back when we first started using Mako. My grandmother told me once about all the cases they would get, usually blue-collared workers of Shinra Electric, or occasionally a Mako researcher. Mako poisoning can only be caused by direct contact though, so it’s a perfectly safe energy source for us to use.”

“How did Mr. Valentine get it then?”

Lucretia sighed. “He was _careless_ , that’s how. Shinra Electric’s scientists were examining a new source for Mako, and Vincent was part of the team.”

Aerith decided not to comment on the use of his first name. “He was a scientist?”

“In a sense. He’s done a lot of research on Mako, but he’s actually in charge of finding where new Mako pools are located. As far as I can tell, he was there this time to supervise the drilling and excavating, and to make sure the right things were getting blown up.”

“Oh.” She pursed her lips. “Sounds fun. So, what happened?”

“Some wet-behind-the-ears scientist got too excited and decided to ignore the safety precautions. He would have fallen into a pool, a natural, unprocessed pool, mind you, if Vincent hadn’t pushed him out of the way. The grounds around Mako pools are very fragile, so I’ve heard, and tend to crumble away under weight. Something about the Mako sucking stuff out the soil, I think he said. Anyway, the ground broke and Vincent fell into the pool.”

“That’s horrible!” Aerith gasped. “Didn’t he have any safety gear on, or something?” An image of Vincent in a full hazmat suit flittered across her mind. Somehow, it just didn’t suit him.

“He had the bare minimum of protective clothing. Typical of men, isn’t it?” She shook her head. “He was only in the pool for a minute, at the very most, so he should recover quickly. I don’t see him being here for more than a few weeks,” she said as she filed a few papers away. She handed Aerith a rather large stack. “Could you help me bring these down to the second floor?”

Aerith nodded and they started toward the elevator. “So, what’s _wrong_ with Vincent? I mean, what does Mako poisoning do to a person?”

“It’s Mr. Valentine, Miss. Gainsborough, and the symptoms aren’t anything terribly unusual. High fevers, severe nausea, coughing up blood, occasional fainting spells, sometimes the patient is a little jittery. In very severe cases, the patient may even enter a comatose state for a period of time.”

Aerith mulled that over while they waited for the elevator. It arrived with a soft ‘ping’ and they entered, riding down in a comfortable silence.

_Zack,_

_You’re weird. You shouldn’t end letters like that._

_That aside, it’s kind of funny that you wanted to be in Shinra when you grew up. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a Turk. I thought they were really cool and dangerous. The exact opposite of me. How does Kunsel like it? Did he get into SOLDIER? I kind of wanted to be a chocobo jockey too, but I get motion sickness, so that probably wouldn’t have worked. Do all Turks have to fly helicopters?_

_I’ve never actually been snowboarding. I probably would have, if I didn’t have to leave Nibelheim, but my mom didn’t want me trying it when I was a kid. Probably for the better. The other kids would’ve tried to push me off the mountain._

_There aren’t any of those in Nibelheim. They sound kind of weird. Where do they get the lantern? And the dagger? They are wild, right? You don’t just find that stuff lying around. Nibelheim has a lot of wolves. The ones at the very top of the mountain are dangerous, but some of them live closer to town, and they’re more used to people. I saw a mother wolf give birth to a litter of pups once. It was one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen. There was blood everywhere, and the mom was making these terrible noises. Watching your own kid be born might be magical or whatever, but watching an animal definitely isn’t. I had nightmares for weeks. I’ve always really wanted a dog for a pet though…_

It might have taken her a little longer to fit the pieces together if Zack hadn’t had an attack mere days after her conversation with Lucretia.

It happened suddenly, like always. One minute he was breaking into the kitchen with Cloud (they wanted to make a cigar-shaped cake for Cid’s birthday) and purposely leaving hand prints on the other man’s butt with flour, the next he was stumbling backwards, knocking a few eggs and a tub of frosting off the counter, and trying to catch his breathe while his whole body broke out into a sweat. Cloud was a strong guy, and managed to get Zack onto his back. Zack was still a lot taller than him though, and weighed quite a bit more. Luckily, being in a hospital, it was only a matter of seconds before he found help, and Zack was swiftly brought to his room just in time for him to spew his guts.

If Cloud didn’t mind Zack’s room change before, he did now.

At first, he wasn’t allowed to see him. He spent every day sitting by Zack’s door, just far enough to be out of the way of the nurses. It was protocol that patients had to be in their rooms by a certain hour, so Cloud was forced to sleep in his own room. He came back first thing every morning though, and didn’t leave except to use the bathroom. Aerith personally brought him his meals, to ensure he actually ate. Once he fell asleep leaning against the wall, and Aerith had to wake him to give him his dinner. Her heart broke when he cracked open his eyes and asked groggily for Zack, only to realize seconds later that Zack wasn’t there.

Thankfully for the both of them, they weren’t kept apart as long as when Cloud was ill. Once Zack was conscious enough to complain, he did. Trying to console him, one nurse made the mistake of letting him know Cloud had been camping outside his room for several days. He instantly became livid with worry and demanded his boyfriend be let into the room. Eventually he got so riled up he caused himself to have a coughing fit, and soon blood was everywhere. It wasn’t long after that the nurses realized it would probably be healthier for the both of them if they were just allowed to see each other.

And so Cloud was let into the room, and once Zack got a hold of him he held on with much greater strength than someone in his position should have had, and nearly wept with joy. Cloud climbed into his bed and buried his face in his chest, then told him to stop being such a pansy, and that he was acting like a girl. They stayed like that until nightfall, when Cloud had to return to his room.

Although Zack seemed to be much happier and at ease with Cloud around, the presence of his love didn’t seem to speed up his healing any. Two months passed, and he was still coughing up blood and bile, suffering from frequent dizzy spells, and generally just being miserable. When Cloud started hyperventilating in the lobby one morning on his way to Zack’s room, then collapsed on the floor in an unconscious heap, the staff wasn’t really sure what to tell Zack.

Cloud was a very punctual person, naturally, and had an internal clock not to be believed. Zack knew this, so it only took five minutes past Cloud’s usual arrival time for him to start getting antsy. In a rare show of patience, he waited a full 15 minutes before asking someone if they’d seen his little blond chocobo. He didn’t take the news well.

The next hour was full of plenty of yelling. Zack ripped off his heart monitor, causing an influx of nurses and doctors to rush frantically to the room, and he had to be restrained more than a few times as he tried to force his way out of the room. When a young volunteer named Wedge hesitantly poked his head into the room and informed Tseng that they were having trouble with Mr. Strife in room 12-D, Zack became even more irrational.

Aerith was with Cloud at this time, and was in a similar situation. He asked for Zack until he couldn’t speak anymore. He struggled against the nurses, even though he didn’t even have the strength to push the weakest of them aside. He managed to stand up, but his achievement only lasted a couple of seconds before he fell forward. Aerith made a move to catch him and he coughed blood up all over her front. In the end, both men ended up pushing themselves until they passed out from exhaustion.

The doctors and nurses (volunteers weren’t allowed, so Aerith didn’t get a say) most associated with the fourth floor held an emergency conference. Aerith asked Reeve what happened (he wasn’t really allowed to say, but Reeve was a pushover and a big softy), and he told her they decided on several things. First, they decided that the relationship between Zack and Cloud wasn’t natural. Their attachment to each other seemed to verge on obsession, and in everyday society would likely be deemed as unhealthy. Reeve had to jog to catch up with Aerith when she turned on her heel and stomped away, radiating anger.

“Wait, Aerith! I’m not done!”

“I don’t care! Cloud and Zack are in _love_ Reeve. And they _aren’t_ in everyday society. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe the reason they’re so attached is because they’re _all they have_? Did anyone even think about how long they’ve been in here? How long they’re going to _continue_ staying here?”

“I know, I know! That’s what we talked about next! Aerith, I understand! Will you just STOP!?”

Aerith came to a halt and whirled around to face him. Reeve took one look at her quivering lip and nearly burst into tears himself. Devastated that he caused someone to get upset, he gently put a hand on her shoulder and tried to alleviate her anger.

“Aerith, whatever is going on between Strife and Fair is very psychological. We understood their circumstances though, and taking them into consideration, we realized their relationship is actually _extremely_ healthy for them.”

Aerith frowned, waiting for him to continue. Reeve shifted a bit, suddenly uncomfortable.

“Aerith. Look,” he took a deep breath, “You have to realize, I mean, _everyone_ realizes that Strife, Fair, and the others, they’re not, I mean they’re going to…” He took another breath and stared her straight in the eye. “They’re going to die, Aerith. Here. In the hospital.”

“I know Reeve.” Her eyes started to moisten and she blinked rapidly, willing the tears not to fall. She knew that. She’d always known that, but hearing it said out loud…it stung more than she thought it would.

Reeve pulled her into a loose hug, awkwardly stroking her back while she tried not to cry.

“They want to live in Gongaga. They want a house, with a garden out front. They want to get jobs and driver licenses. They want a dog named Mog, who will look really scary but,” she hiccuped, “but will actually be a sweetheart!” She fell to sobbing, clutching his coat and burying her face into his chest. Reeve was only momentarily alarmed before he held her closer, shushing her and whispering small, meaningless words of comfort. Eventually he gave up and just let her cry in silence. Once she started to quiet down he pulled her gently away and caught her eye.

“We decided to let them share a room.”

She hiccupped again and wiped at her face. “What?”

“It was Dr. Zhíshengji who suggested it, actually. He said that as medical professionals, it’s not only our duty to heal people, but to provide comfort to those beyond help. We’ve done the best we can, as far as treatments go. We all agreed that the best medicine for them now is each other. These attacks are only going to get more and more violent. Eventually, they’re going to become bound to their rooms.” Aerith covered her mouth, choking back another sob. “As things are now, when that happens, they won’t be able to visit each other. That’s why we decided to move Fair to room 12-D.”

She hiccuped again. “And Cloud?”

Reeve smiled. “He’s staying right where he is.”

The next day, Tseng found himself quite flustered when he wished Aerith a good morning and she responded by launching herself at him, throwing her arms about his neck and planting a kiss to his cheek, forehead, and finally his nose.

“Aerith! What is the meaning of this!?” he sputtered, pulling away.

She rocked back on her heels, smiling broadly. “Ah, ah, ah! That’s Miss Gainsborough to you! And I’m just thanking you.”

Tseng frowned. “For what?”

“For being a great doctor, of course,” she replied, holding out her hand. “So thanks, Dr. Zhíshengji.”

Tseng hesitated a moment before offering her a small smile and grasping her hand in a firm handshake. “I should be the one thanking you, _Miss Gainsborough_.”

She laughed. “For what?”

“For making sure my staff remembers that patients are real people. That’s…a very valuable lesson, and sometimes some of us need a reminder.” He held her gaze and gently squeezed her hand. “So thanks, Miss Gainsborough.”

He let go of her hand and walked past her, continuing onto his destination. Aerith watched him go, a small smile on her face.

_Cloudy,_

_I went down and visited the kids today. They’re all worried about you. We should visit them together once you’re feeling better! What chances do you think we have of convincing the nurses to let us go down there after dark to tell them super scary stories and scare the bejeezus out of them? I bet you could convince them, all the nurses like you! Just bat those baby blues a few times and they’ll all melt! (tell them to make better food too, I’m dying!)_

_You’ve really never been to the Gold Saucer? I went once, when I was a kid. Man, that place is the best! I guess they’re expensive, cause my folks were complaining up a storm, but I sure had a blast! They have chocobo racing (your dream job!), a battle arena, a haunted hotel (Where we would stay, if we went. Don’t worry, I’ll let you cling to me if you get scared. All night long, if need be.), an arcade, and a gondola! We have to go on the gondola sometime, it’s so awesome. We’d have a private cart, so it’d just be the two of us, and there’s fireworks and the whole park is all lit up. You have to see it…_

Zack was moved to Cloud’s room not a moment too soon. Reeve’s words about their limited mobility proved themselves true much faster than anyone anticipated. They were ecstatic to be together, of course, and that visibly helped with their health. They were a little more lively, even on their worse days, and seemed much less miserable than ever before. The presence of the other seemed to calm them, which was good, because they were sick much longer than usual. Two months passed, and their symptoms stayed steadily awful. They had their good days, of course, and on one rare occasion when they were both feeling pretty decent, they teamed up and pushed their beds together. No one complained.

Four months passed before their random boughs of fever seemed to completely stop. After five months, Zack finally got his balance completely under control and Cloud followed suit soon after. Soon after that, their fits of nausea also came to an end. At month six, they were allowed to go outside without an attendant, provided they went together (this was never an issue). It took seven months before Zack stopped coughing up blood. Cloud, though the frequency diminished, never stopped.

“Lucretia?” Aerith was walking down the hall with said nurse, both of them thoroughly soaked. They’d just come back from giving Mr. Hojo his sponge bath, which was always an effort. Mr. Hojo hated baths, and he let everyone around know it.

“Yes, _Miss_ Gainsborough?” she answered, giving Aerith a (teasing) evil eye.

Aerith bit her bottom lip, trying to figure out where to start. Eventually she started with, “How is Mr. Valentine doing?”

Apparently that was the wrong question to ask, if the redness in Lucretia’s face was anything to go by. “Why are you asking _me_? Vinc- _Mr. Valentine_ checked out months ago! Why would _I_ of all people,” she laughed far too loudly, “know how he’s doing? It’s not like I’m _seeing_ him or anything. That would be entirely unprofessional! Really Aerith, you shouldn’t suggest such things!”

“Um, sorry, let me rephrase. I should have asked, how did Mr. Valentine’s Mako poisoning clear up? He hasn’t been back with any health complaints, has he?”

Lucretia got redder. “Oh. Oh of course. No, he hasn’t been in. At least to my knowledge, of course. It’s not like I keep tabs on him you know!” She laughed loudly again then fell quiet. “Why do you ask, dear?”

“Weeeell, I was just thinking. Do you think…it could be possible that some of the patients here, say like, oh I don’t know, Zack or Cloud, may possibly have Mako poisoning? Just a little?”

Lucretia stopped. “Miss Gainsborough, those boys have never been exposed to Mako. You can’t get Mako poisoning without Mako.”

“Oh, I know! I was just thinking, maybe there could have been an accident where they didn’t _know_ they were exposed to Mako. I mean, the whole world is pretty much running off it. It’s everywhere…”

“That may be true, but if that was the case, I assure you it would have left their systems by now. Mako poisoning isn’t a long term illness. You either heal up in a few months, at the _very_ most, or you die. That’s that, Miss Gainsborough.”

“Right, right. I just, you know, thought it was kind of weird. I mean, a lot of the patients on the fourth floor came here in the same year, and they all have very similar symptoms to Mr. Valentine’s. I just thought, maybe if there was an accident…”

“I know that, dear. We all know that. But I can assure you, none of those children have Mako poisoning. It’s just, well, it’s just not possible.”

Aerith frowned, letting the conversation drop. Lucretia obviously wasn’t going to help. Reeve had responded similarly when she presented her hypothesis, and she knew without trying that Tseng wouldn’t listen. That was alright though. Frustrating, but alright. She’d just have to take matters into her own hands.

_Zack,_

_What brought on this love at first sight stuff again? I mean, it’s been a while since you last saw me, after all. I’m not mad, just curious._

_Anyway, to answer your question, no, I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe in falling in love either, for that matter. My mom always said people should grow in love. When you fall, you move really fast, and eventually you hit the ground. If you grow in love with someone, then things happen more slowly and you have more time to enjoy it. Instead of hitting the ground, you bloom, and then keep on growing._

_That sounds stupid, right? Sorry I can’t explain it better. I feel like a sap. . ._

Cloud grew up somewhat close to a Mako reactor. She remembered him mentioning that to Zack once while they were picking flowers. And she wasn’t 100%, but she was almost certain Zack said he grew up by one too. She’d talk to him later though. She had other things to worry about.

She decided to talk to Angeal first, because he always struck her as a very honest, easygoing person, and she didn’t think he’d mind her asking him a few questions. She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, so she told a white lie and claimed she was doing a survey for one of her classes. Angeal raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t seem to doubt her.

“Where did you grow up, Angeal?” she asked, sitting across from him, clipboard in hand and pen ready.

“A town called Banora, in the Mideel region.”

Aerith’s eyebrows rose. “Mideel? Wow, you’ve come a long way.”

Angeal laughed. “Well, maybe no one told you, but there isn’t really much in Mideel. A lot of people born there end up leaving.”

“Really? Well, what was Banora like? What was in the town?”

Angeal frowned and cupped his chin. “Well. . . there were several windmills. A well. Banora is an agricultural town, so there really isn’t much. Lots of land, lots of trees. A convenience store, a mini mart. The usual small town stuff, I guess.”

None of that was what she was looking for. “What about around Banora? Were there any other towns close by?”

Angeal shook his close. “The actual town of Mideel was the closest. There’s an active Mako reactor on the outskirts of town, so nothing gets built out there.”

She perked up. “A reactor? You’ve seen it?”

“Oh yes. Genesis and Sephiroth would often play on it as children, challenging each other to perform some stupid stunt up there. I always had to go and drag them back home.” He smiled fondly and shook his head. “They never listened when I said it was dangerous.”

“Wait, you, Genesis, and Sephiroth grew up together?” This was news to her.

Angeal nodded. “Yes, we were all born in Banora, and we were very close as children. I like to think we still are, even though Genesis and Sephiroth have their disagreements every now and then.”

Aerith asked a few more questions about Banora that she didn’t really care about the answers to. She had the information she came there for, and more. Now she didn’t even have to talk to Sephiroth and Genesis. She decided to talk to Yuffie next.

Yuffie was usually full of energy, but this time she was fairly out of it. She was recovering from an attack.

Aerith handed her a glass of water and Yuffie inhaled it, exhaling loudly when she finished. Her voice was still raspy when she spoke. “Wutai, of course! One hundred and fifty percent, I’m as purebred Wutainese as you can get!” She tried to laugh and ended up having a coughing fit. Aerith rubbed her back until she was done then got her another glass of water.

“Thanks,” she mumbled miserably, sipping it.

“You’re welcome. Now, can you describe Wutai a little to me? What’s it like? What kind of places are there?”

“Places? Umm, well, there’s the pagoda. That’s this biiiiiig temple thing, where all these smelly old guys go to worship and crap. And Da Chao Mountain overlooks the entire village. You should see that! Very impressive, if I do say so myself!” She tried to laugh again and ended up coughing, though not nearly as violently as the first time.

Aerith decided to try a new tactic. “Were there any parts of Wutai you _didn’t_ like?”

“Parts that I didn’t like?” She stopped to consider it. “Huuummmm! Weeeell, I guuueeeess, the reactor was kind of stupid. It got in my way a lot.”

Aerith perked up. “What kind of reactor?”

“Uh, Mako.” She scrunched her nose up. “What other kind is there?”

Aerith ignored the question. “How did it get in your way?”

“That stupid hunk of junk! They put it at the foot of Da Chao, in this little woodsy area outside of the village. Wutai is surrounded by water, you know, and there’s this big old stream that runs through the whole village. I decided my life goal was going to be to swim the whooooole thing! It’s really long too! Cause it weaves around the houses and buildings and stuff, and just goes all over the place! Well, one time I had gotten ALL the way to the woodsy area, and I was soooo excited. But then, this _stupid_ reactor is plopped down right over the stream! I couldn’t get around it, so I had to give up. Kisaragi’s aren’t supposed to give up!” she huffed, crossing her arms.

Aerith let that sink in. “Wait. So, the reactor was _in_ the stream?”

“Yeah, it was half underwater. Apparently some of them are like that. My old man said there’s one entirely underwater over by. . . I forget. Some uncool place, far from Wutai. Mako is a natural resource or whatever. The earth makes it, I mean. But Mako pools need a lot of nutrients found in the soil to keep themselves from running out of juice. Pops said something about it being a more efficient source of power if it has lots of nutrients. Anyway, apparently the soil found by streams and stuff is full of nutrients, so Shinra Electric goes crazy when they find a Mako pool beneath one. That’s why the reactor in Wutai is better than all the other reactors!”

“Wow, Yuffie. You. . . seem to know a lot about all this. That was very informative.”

Yuffie grinned and puffed out her chest. “Of course! As a direct descendant of my Wutainese ancestors, I naturally know everything there is to know about my homeland! I was born knowing this stuff!”

Aerith doubted that, but didn’t question her. “Well, thank you for your help Yuffie. I think I have what I need for my survey now.”

“What, really? You mean you don’t want to hear about the hot springs? They have healing powers! Or our super cool merchant district? We sell everything! And then there’s all the legends about our deity, Leviathan! You’ll love hearing about him!”

“Um, maybe another time Yuffie. I need to talk to a few more people. I need to get a good grade, after all!”

“But, I didn’t even tell you about my house! My house is sooooo awesome!”

In the end, Aerith ended up spending nearly the whole day listening to Yuffie’s stories. She marked it down as payment for the plethora of information she’d obtained in just one day.

The next day, she managed to talk to a few more people. First was a red head from Midgar. He was quick to mention the Mako reactor that he used as a hiding spot from the cops when he was younger. Next was a blonde from Icicle Inn, who hesitantly admitted that, because no one ever went to the reactor, she used to go there to get away from her sister, who she’d always been terribly jealous of. There was a guy from Kalm who always wore a headband. He discovered an abandoned reactor while swimming in the river, about a mile from the town. A brunette girl and another girl with auburn hair used to play together in the Junon Bay, very close to the town’s active reactor. There were still a lot of pieces missing, but Aerith’s puzzle was definitely coming together.

Next, she had to talk to Zack and Cloud.

Cloud she already knew had been pushed into a river on Mount Nibel. She also knew there was a reactor on Mount Nibel. Confirmation on the distance between said reactor and river would be nice, but wasn’t really necessary. She could put two and two together. That left Zack.

“Zack?”

Cloud had coughed up some blood that morning, but other than that, the two of them were doing great that day. Aerith asked them if they wanted to take a walk outside with her, and they both agreed wholeheartedly.

“Yeah?”

“You grew up near a Mako reactor, right?”

Zack raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, it was dead though. Spike here grew up with the noisy one!” he said, ruffling Cloud’s hair.

“It wasn’t noisy,” Cloud said, pulling away from Zack’s hand. Once he escaped, he hugged Zack’s arm and continued on, pressed to his side.

Zack grinned. “I love it when you cling to me babe,” he said honestly, kissing the top of Cloud’s head.

Cloud snorted. “I only cling to keep you still.”

“So, you don’t like reactors then, Zack?”

“Huh? Well, no. I mean, I don’t really care.” He grinned and laughed a little. “Actually, I _loved_ growing up next to that thing. The door was broken, and when we were small, Kunsel and I could fit through the gap to get inside. It was real dark and scary inside, and there were steps everywhere! We pretended it was an evil fortress and we were heroes, fighting to reach the evil time witch at the top!”

“Time witch?”

“Yeah, a time witch!” Aerith tuned them out while Zack explained why a time witch was so much more threatening than a regular witch. That just left _one_ more thing she needed to test before she could tell her theory to Tseng. After all, even he couldn’t ignore blood evidence, right?

_Cloudy,_

_I don’t really know what brought it on. Don’t be creeped out, but you’re kind of all I think about nowadays. I know we talk every day, through our letters, but you can’t even comprehend how freaking much I miss you. I wanna see you really badly. I guess that’s what made me think of it. I was picturing you, the first time I ever saw your face._

_Everyone feels like a sap when they talk about love. That’s how you know you’re talking about it the right way. And I don’t think that sounds stupid at all. I think it makes a lot of sense, actually. What I want to know is, what does this mean for us? Right now, I’m feeling all sorts of stuff, that I’ve never felt before…_

“Huh?”

“No.”

Zack furrowed his eyebrows in confusion while Cloud stared her down, eyes slightly narrowed. It was the day after she discovered that Zack used to play inside a reactor as a child, and she was already working on the next step of her ‘project.’ She decided to focus on Cloud, since he would likely be the most difficult of the two to persuade and, as such, would take more time.

“Pleeeaaase Cloud! I just need a few drops. And you won’t even have to do anything, just cough! Zack’s the only one that will have to be cut, and it’ll be small!”

“No.”

Zack rested a hand on Cloud’s knee. “It’s alright babe, I don’t mind a little cut. I’m just curious. _Why_ do you need our blood? And why not use a needle? This is kind of weird.”

“I’m not allowed to use a needle Zack, I’m still learning. Only nurses and doctors can do that.”

“But you’re allowed to slice people open and take their blood?” Cloud questioned, frowning.

“With your permission!”

Zack laughed. “I can handle a little cut, I promise. But _why_? And can’t you just get a nurse or something to help you?” He crinkled his nose. “This isn’t for some funky religious thing is it?” He narrowed his eyes, trying to read her expression. “Aerith. Are you a necromancer?”

“No!” She groaned. “I just, I want a sample of both of your blood to study. It’s for a…project. For school.”

Cloud’s frown deepened. “You’re lying.”

She felt her face heat up. “No I’m not?”

Zack laughed. “Please Aerith, you can’t lie to _us_. We’re us! You should know that by now. Just tell us what’s going on. We won’t get mad.” He paused then hesitantly added, “Even if you _are_ trying to bring back the dead in some horrible, tonberry slaughtering ritual.”

“Aerith would never hurt a tonberry,” Cloud mumbled, albeit in a slightly unsure manner. Aerith rolled her eyes.

“I’m _not_ doing any kind of ritual, I promise! I just…” she lowered her eyes, “I just want to take a look at your blood, is all…”

Zack and Cloud shared a silent look, then Zack carefully put a hand on her knee. “Aerith? Look, we appreciate this, really. But, Cloud and I…I mean…” he sighed and removed his hand, running it through his hair. “Dammit…”

“There’s nothing you can do Aerith,” Cloud clarified, saying what Zack couldn’t. Zack met her eyes then quickly dropped his gaze to his lap. Cloud lasted a bit longer, but eventually adverted his gaze as well.

Her eyes started to water. “So what? You’re just _accepting_ this? What if I find something? We have to try!”

“They’ve already tried,” Cloud mumbled.

Zack glanced at her then looked away again. “We’ve had more needles than we can count, Aerith. You’re not going to find anything that hasn’t already been found.”

“But—”

“There are stages, Aerith. Acceptance is the last one.” Cloud looked up and held her gaze. “We’re there.”

They shifted awkwardly when she started crying full out, not quite sure what to do. They shared a silent look again.

“Aerith?” Zack knelt down beside her and lifted her chin so he could see her face. “Hey,” he smiled gently. “Look, if it’ll make you feel better, you can have as much blood from us as you want, right Cloudy?”

Cloud knelt down next to him and interlaced his fingers with hers. “Yeah. We don’t mind. We shouldn’t have said what we did. That was wrong of us.”

Aerith shook her head. “No it wasn’t. You’re right. I’m sorry.” She squeezed Cloud’s hand. “I’ll just ask Yuffie or Angeal for a sample. No biggie.”

Zack smiled ruefully and shook his head. “No. You wanted _our_ blood, and that’s what you’re going to get. Besides, Yuffie’s too small to spare any. She’d pass out.”

Aerith laughed a little, wiping at her face with her free hand. “I only need a little. She’s sturdier than you think.”

Zack laughed. “I don’t doubt it. Now come on. Go get a sterile…sharp thing and a something-to-put-the-blood-in thing. We’ll do it right now.”

She looked at Cloud and he nodded.

It was awkward, and she felt a little (okay, a lot) guilty as she watched them carefully cutting their arms. Cloud was only a little miffed when she confessed that he couldn’t actually wait until he had to cough, because his saliva would interfere with the purity of the sample. Even _more_ awkward though, was the fact that, because she wasn’t really supposed to have these samples, she had to hide them on her person. That was how Aerith found herself with a vial of Zack’s blood hidden in the right cup of her bra, and a vial of Cloud’s on the left. It seemed like a good hiding spot at first, but as the day went on, she couldn’t help but realize how creepy it was.

When she got home and carefully set the vials on her desk, she had to face the sad conclusion that she really didn’t know what to do next. She had the blood samples, and that was great. But, what next? She wasn’t a chemist or a hematologist or anything. How was she supposed to figure out what she needed to figure out?

She sat down in her wheelie chair and cushioned her chin in her palms. Zack and Cloud were right, in one aspect. Their blood had been studied _a lot_. She could go out and buy the best microscope in the world; she wasn’t finding anything that hadn’t already been found. Sooo, that meant she just had to do some testing then.

She picked up the vial sloppily labeled “Zack” (sloppy because she put masking tape around the tubes and let the boys write their own names; both of them had atrocious handwriting), and swirled it around.

Her hushed tone filled the silence of her room as she quietly whispered to herself, “I need Mako…”

_Zack,_

_I’m not creeped out. You’re all I ever think about too. Considering what lengths I went to get away from you before, you should be the one disturbed. I might be crazy or something, to make such a 180 like that._

_Trust me Zack, I can comprehend._

_What does this mean for us? Well, I think it means we’ve been growing…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The unnamed patients Aerith interviews, if not obvious, are as follows:  
> Red head who hid from cops = Reno  
> Blonde from Icicle Inn, jealous of sister = Elena  
> Guy with headband = Biggs  
> Girls with auburn and brunette hair that used to play together = Cissnei and Jessie
> 
> Thanks for reading! I'll try to get the last chapter posted soon!


	3. Mako

In _Chocobo Chicks_ , whenever the girls needed something, it was usually either provided by a friend, or found using magical means that typically made use of the power of love and friendship. If they needed something the _enemy_ had, however, they would have to break into a stronghold, sometimes donning disguises, and sneak around only to be caught and forced into an action packed battle that they always won.

Aerith didn’t have any friends who happened to have Mako lying around. She didn’t have magical powers either, so she was in a bit of a pickle. Really, how did someone go about obtaining Mako? Sure, it was _everywhere_ , but at the same time, it wasn’t. And although she knew about some very unguarded and unsafe reactors throughout the world, she couldn’t very well afford a trip to Nibelheim or Wutai. Plus, tromping around a Mako reactor was dangerous. She wanted to help her patients, not give herself the same illness they had.

So, that left her only one option (that she could think of, at least), and that was the ‘breaking into the enemy stronghold’ path. She felt bad thinking of the nurses and doctors of Midgar Hospital as the ‘enemy,’ because she loved them, but she needed the personal file of a certain Vincent Valentine, known Shinra Electric employee. Since that file was hidden away in the records’ room (which she didn’t have access too) she had no choice but to break and enter. As Priscilla once said in episode 59, breaking and entering was kind of okay if it was done in the name of love. On some subconscious level, Aerith clung to that ideal.

The _Chocobo Chicks_ consisted of a team of three, however. Aerith was alone, which made things decidedly more difficult. She needed to enlist some help, but from who? Any favors Zack and Cloud may have owed her flew out the window when she made them cut a slit into their own flesh. That was a pretty big favor, after all. Yuffie was always willing to help, but she was still recovering from her attack. Genesis was mean, Sephiroth was scary, Mr. Heindeggar wasn’t stealthy (at all), and Mr. Hojo was (not to be mean) completely useless. It was times like this when she missed Barret. He would have helped her, and he would have done a good job too. So, that left two people who might help. One that would be in it for the cause, and one that would be in it because he cherished her friendship.

“You want me to what? God dammit girl, yer not making any sense!”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from either, Aerith. Why don’t you just _ask_ for the information you need? Stealing a file, well, that’s not a very honorable thing to do.”

“I know it isn’t, Angeal, and I feel horrible, but there’s no other way! Look, I just need you guys to make a distraction so I can grab the keys and get it. I can probably get the file and be out in ten minutes!” Probably being the key word, but she decided not to mention that.

Cid chewed on his toothpick, frowning deeply at her. “What d’ya expect us to do? Fake a heart attack? I don’t need his help for that,” he said, pointing a thumb in Angeal’s direction.

Aerith shook her head. “No, that won’t do. They’ll know right away if there isn’t any real danger to your health. And that would only bring a few nurses and doctors anyway. I need the whole desk to clear out. I need…pandemonium.”

Angeal raised an eyebrow and Cid grinned, accidentally biting his toothpick in half.

“Thatta girl! _Now_ you’re talking.”

_________________________

Aerith wasn’t _exactly_ sure what Angeal and Cid were doing, but she was grateful, even if she _did_ think they were going a little overboard. Water was creeping down the corridor toward the lobby, yet at the same time, the fire alarms were going off. She heard a large crash that sounded like glass and winced. Over the top, maybe, but necessary, she supposed.

This ‘pandemonium’ was made worse when Zack and Cloud (Zack because he was a snoop, and Cloud because he was (unofficially) Zack’s caretaker) decided to show up on the scene. Zack practically dragged Cloud down the corridor, happily splashing in the water and ignoring the protests and reprimands of the nurses and doctors they were passing.

Aerith was tearing the nurse’s station to pieces, looking for the keys when Zack came running back at high speed, carrying Cloud bridal style and screaming “Don’t worry babe!!” while Cloud rattled off a string of inappropriate phrases and words. Old Mr. Hojo and his walker were slowly making their way across the room and Zack nearly plowed into him. Moving more swiftly than he had in years, Mr. Hojo just barely managed to dodge getting run over, though he did get clipped in the head with Cloud’s foot. He stopped to shake his fist at their retreating figures and grumble old man stuff, only to be bowled over moments later when a tidal wave came spilling out of corridor C, bringing pieces of small equipment like bottles, trays (pointy contents on top or not), and more than a few canes with it. Aerith’s eyes widened as she uttered the first (and likely last) curse word to ever pass her lips. She found the keys and booked it down the stairs, silently thanking Zack for his naturally disastrous ways.

She knew where the file lockers were, but she didn’t have a _clue_ which of the thirty keys in her hand was the correct one. So she tried them all. Hastily, she tried all thirty with no luck. She took a deep breath and tried again, trying to keep her hand steady, and this time found it after ten keys.

She stepped into the room and the automatic lights came on, went off, then moments later returned with a whirr. They were probably working off the generator now. Again, dangerous, but…

“Thank you Cid,” she murmured, making a beeline to the back of the room. Valentine would be near the end, after all.

She heard a few screams upstairs and ignored them as she hurriedly sifted through the file cabinets. She found Valentine quickly enough, but there were well over sixty of them. Again, she started at the back, looking for Vincent. Once she found it, she hastily wrote down his contact information on her stomach (the perfect hiding spot), and replaced the file. The whole search took much longer than the ten minutes she promised Cid, but…

A crash sounded upstairs and, when she stepped out of the file locker, she saw a light trickle of water coming down the stairs.

…she was pretty sure the boys made sure she got a little extra time anyway.

Deciding not to risk it though, she carefully made her way upstairs and braved the elements in search of the eye (or rather, _eyes_ ) of the storm. She found out from another nurse that all of the patients on the fourth floor capable of moving on their own had been asked to go to the fifth floor, for safety’s sake. Aerith pretended to help with the chaos as she stealthily replaced the keys in the (destroyed) drawer of the (destroyed) nurses’ station, then inched her way back to the staircase before, when no one was looking, hightailing it to the fifth floor.

She found Angeal first, flitting around trying to calm down some of the older patients.

“Angeal!”

He turned around then, saying a few more words of comfort to Mr. Zangan, made his way through the crowd to her.

“Aerith!” He reached her and, bending over to reach her level, dropped his voice to a whisper, “How did everything go? Did you get...what you needed?”

She nodded, beaming up at him. “Sure did! And it’s all thanks to you and Cid!” she said, throwing her arms around his torso. He laughed and patted her back.

“Well, I can’t say I’m particularly _proud_ of what we did, but...if there’s even a little hope...” he smiled grimly. “Just do your best, alright?”

Aerith nodded against his chest, then slowly released him. “Right. I will.”

“There’s my girl!”

Aerith spun around, a smile instantly lighting up her face. “Cid!”

Cid’s face changed, and it took her a few seconds to realize it. The broad grin he was sporting fell from his face, and his eyes widened almost comically. His (new) toothpick fell to the floor. “Angeal! Shit!”

He started running forward and Aerith turned, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, just in time to see Angeal drop to the floor in front of her. She gave a startled yell and dropped down next to him, pulling him into a sitting position. “Angeal! Angeal, wake up!”

She hadn’t noticed Zack and Cloud in the crowd, kindly helping Mr. Hojo find his walker. They both looked up when Cid first yelled, and watched as one of Zack’s dearest friends at Midgar Hospital collapsed. They both went still.

“Angeal?” Zack whispered, his eyes moving frantically as he tried to take in the scene, “Angeal!?” He let go of Mr. Hojo, letting Cloud support his weight, and ran toward them. Cloud didn’t hesitate as he unthinkingly pushed Mr. Hojo off him and rushed after his boyfriend. Mr. Hojo’s startled cry as he fell to the floor went unnoticed.

“Angeal! What happened?” Zack knelt down next to him and took him from Aerith, able to support his weight much more easily.

“I-I don’t know he just,” Aerith trailed off as she glanced around. She needed help. In her panic, only one person came to mind. Her longtime neighbor and childhood babysitter. He wasn’t Angeal’s assigned doctor, but...

“Tseng!!! Tseng, help!!!”

“Aerith? Aerith, what is it? Hold on, I’m coming!”

But he _was_ always there for her, and that’s what mattered.

Tseng was at her side in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. Angeal’s breathing had become erratic, and Zack was nearly having a panic attack.

“Room 62 is empty, it’s just up the hall. Zack, Cloud, help me carry him there. Aerith, go downstairs and find Miss Crescent, tell her Angeal Hewley is having an attack. Then I want you to find Dr. Nanaki. Understand?”

Aerith nodded and flew down the stairs. Her feet were submerged in water the moment she reached the bottom.

“Lucretia!!”

She ran through the lobby, kicking up water and splashing other staff members as she did.

“Miss Gainsborough! What _are_ you doing? Splashing around in a frenzy isn’t helping anyone.”

She spun around and spied Miss Jenova across the room. She decided not to waste the effort running to her and just yelled instead.

“Miss Jenova, do you know where Luc-I mean, Miss Crescent is!? I need to find her, it’s an emergency!”

She had all of the staff’s attention at 'emergency.' Reeve was the one to answer her.

“Corridor B! Last I saw, she was near the 40s section!”

Aerith didn’t waste any time, sprinting down the corridor and shouting a distracted “Thank you” as she did. She got lucky. Lucretia hadn’t moved far from where Reeve had last spotted her, and she wasn’t in a patient’s room, which made her MUCH easier to spot.

“Lucretia!” Aerith came to halt in front of her, desperately trying to catch her breath. “Angeal’s...having an attack...Tseng,” she took a large breath of air, “Fifth floor, 62-A. I’ll find Red.”

Lucretia (wonderful woman that she was) understood everything Aerith said and immediately abandoned what she was doing as she ran toward the lobby. Aerith glanced quickly down the hall (just in case Dr. Nanaki was around), then ran after her.

When she reached the lobby, Lucretia was already gone. “Dr. Nanaki!?” she yelled. She could tell in a glance he wasn’t in the room.

“Corridor C!” Reeve yelled out again. She didn’t bother with a thank you this time as she took off down the hallway. She’d have to remember to thank him later.

She was halfway down the hallway when the fire alarms stopped. She’d become so accustomed to the sound, it was almost eerie without the piercing screech. She continued down the hallway, accompanied only by the hollow sound of her own splashing feet.

“Red!” She found him with a few nurses and another doctor near the end of the hallway.

“All the wires were ripped out. See here? It looks like we’re—” Dr. Nanaki paused at the sound of his name and looked up. “Miss Gainsborough? Is there a problem?”

She was bent over, hands on her knees, as she tried to breathe. “Angeal...attack...62-A...Tseng...you...” Instead of wasting the energy to say 'fifth floor' she just feebly pointed toward the ceiling. He was off like a bolt of lighting, not waiting to hear anything more. Aerith watched his figure disappear and slumped down on the ground, not caring that she was getting her butt thoroughly drenched. The other doctor and the nurses glanced at her, then went back to what they were doing without a word. She hugged her knees to her chest, thankful for perhaps the first time in her life that she was being ignored. She kept her face down when she felt the pinprick of tears sting her eyes. This...everything...it was all her fault.

_________________________

The firefighters came and left. The water was cleaned up and the electricity was back up, without the support of the generator. The fourth floor (and some of the third) was still a little (meaning a lot) messy, but most of the patients were moved back to their respective rooms. Angeal was still on the fifth floor, in 62-A, but they were planning on moving him back to his room soon. After all, moving comatose patients about was a fairly easy affair. They never complained.

It was difficult to say who was the most upset. Sephiroth was talking a lot more, which was extremely unlike him. At one point, Aerith caught him walking toward Angeal’s room next to _Cloud_ , of all people, and _conversing_ with him. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d ever seen Cloud look so uncomfortable, even when he was being courted (so to speak) by Zack.

Genesis, ever the opposite, was eerily quiet. Sometimes, before she left for the night, Aerith would see him sitting by Angeal’s bedside, reading passages of _Loveless_ to his childhood friend. Other than that, he never spoke. It was unsettling, watching Sephiroth _talking_ (talking!) to Genesis, while Genesis silently stared off into the distance, occasionally nodding to show he was listening.

Cid’s change in behavior wasn’t that noticeable to those that didn’t really know him. He cursed a lot more, and started chewing manically at his toothpicks. He was going through about 20 a day. Aerith had a good feeling that if anyone was feeling what she was, it was Cid. The Mako poisoning attacks (as Aerith now called them) were always random and typically weren’t triggered by anything. They were never this severe either though. There wasn’t a doubt in either of their minds that Angeal’s state was caused by the events of that day, and they both blamed themselves for letting things get so out of control.

Anymore, Zack and Cloud seemed to work as a single unit, so even though Cloud didn’t know Angeal terribly well, he was still acting like it was his father that was lying on that bed. That was how Zack was acting, after all. Cloud spent all his time at Angeal’s bedside, doing whatever he could for the man, and Zack split his time between fretting over Angeal, and fretting over Cloud. It wasn’t unusual to see Cloud sitting at Angeal’s side, only to rush off to the bathroom when a coughing fit started. It wasn’t unusual to see Zack sprawled across Angeal’s torso either, in an eerily deep sleep. No one was sure if he was passing out from fatigue, or from illness. Aerith had a sinking feeling it was the latter.

The day of the incident (Cid called it 'Doom’s Day'), Aerith stayed late to help clean up. As soon as she got home, she lifted up her shirt and copied down the text on her stomach onto paper, which she folded and carefully stowed away in her purse. That was a week ago, which was far too long. She had to see Vincent Valentine, and she had to see him soon.

Of course, it didn’t help that Vincent didn’t live in Midgar. He lived in Kalm, on the outskirts of Midgar. Then again, given his profession, there was probably a very good chance that he wasn’t in either place at the moment. That’s where PHS’s came in handy. Traveling was a problem, but phone calls were a piece of cake. Aerith gave him a call the day after she’d obtained his information. He _wasn’t_ in Kalm (which was cool, because she didn’t have a car to get there anyway), but he was in Midgar. Sure, he was clear on the other side of the rather massive city, but hey, that’s what trains were for, right?

He was busy until Saturday though and, truth be told, she was too. Between school and the hospital, she didn’t have a lot of free time. She wouldn’t have minded skipping _one_ day of class to see him (her dad probably would have, but whatever), but since he was busy anyway...well, it all kind of worked out.

Once, when she was a kid, Aerith knocked over a vase of flowers her mom put on the counter. The flowers were okay (thank goodness), but the vase shattered. Aerith blamed it on their cat, Cait Sith, and her parents believed her. She’d never felt more guilty in her eight years of existence. That was the first time she ever lied to her parents, and the last time she ever lied to her mom. When she stepped out Saturday and told her dad she was going to spend the day shopping with Tifa, she was lying to him for the second time.

The train ride took her about two hours, but it only took seconds for her to find the Shinra Electric Corporation building. It was the largest building in the world, after all. It was kind of hard to miss.

She felt a little self-conscious, walking into the massive building all alone. She felt worse once she was inside, and realized she stood out in her 'civilian' clothes. She hesitantly approached the secretary, fidgeting slightly. The secretary ignored her just long enough to be considered awkward before glancing up at her.

“Hello Miss. May I help you?”

“Uh, yeah.” Aerith cleared her throat and giggled nervously. “I’m, uh, here to see Vinc-I mean Mr. Valentine! I’m looking for Mr. Valentine’s uh. . . office.” She smiled sweetly. “He’s expecting me.”

The secretary raised an eyebrow, then turned to her computer and started typing at an unbelievable speed. “One moment.” In considerably _less_ than a moment, she glanced back up. “Eighth floor, room 967. You’ll want to take the elevator up, go down the right hallway, make two lefts, then a right. Make sure you knock before entering.”

“Right! Right, of course! Thank you! I’ll just...be going now. Um, thank you. Again.” She walked away from the desk, trying to keep her composure as she searched for the elevator. She heard a cough behind her and glanced back at the desk. “Yes?”

“Elevator’s on the other side of the room, sweetheart,” the secretary said, pointing her thumb to the clearly marked double doors.

Aerith laughed and made her way over. “Oh. I knew that. I was just...looking at your paintings. They’re lovely. They remind me of the ones we have at the hospital. That I work at.” Color was rising to her cheeks. Who knew Shinra Electric was so intimidating!? “Thank you,” she murmured again, ducking into the elevator. She bumped into a man coming out in an impressive looking suit and clambered to the side, uttering a string of apologies that went ignored. She hit the button for the eighth floor and, as soon as the doors closed, she slumped against the back wall and took a deep breath. About ten seconds later the doors reopened and several people in suits walked in. She immediately stood up straight and tried to smile politely at everyone. No one smiled back, so she decided it’d be best just to keep her head down. People were constantly getting on and off, and her whole ride up ended up being rather tense (on her part, at least).

When she reached the eighth floor, she was more than a little relieved that she was the only one getting off (even though she had to fight past the crowd of ten or so people getting on). However, as soon as the elevator doors dinged behind her, a cold feeling of loneliness sweep through her. Was she the _only one_ on this entire floor!?

She made a right and continued at a steady pace down a rather long corridor, her footsteps echoing loudly around her. So she wouldn’t forget, she silently repeated the instructions from the secretary to herself. Right, left, left, right. Right, left, left, right. Easy enough. Right, left, left, right.

After two long corridors, and one short one, she finally made her last turn. Over forty doors loomed in front of her, one of which held Vincent Valentine. She glanced at the door numbers, clearly embossed on the front of each door. The secretary said Vincent was in room 96. . . something. She bit her bottom lip. 96 what? There was another number, what was it?

She groaned out loud and kicked at the ground. She was so stupid! How could she forget something so important!? She eyed the doors around her. That was fine. She would just have to use the process of elimination, that’s all. She already had it narrowed down somewhere between 961 and 969. That was a start, right?

She continued down the hallway until she reached 961. She knocked. No one answered. She knocked again. No one answered again. She tried the doorknob then, finding it locked, decided to move onto the next door. Rather than bounce back and forth across the hall, she decided to do 961, 963, 965, 967, and 969 first, then (if need be) go across the hall and try the adjacent doors. 963 was (presumably) empty as well, with a locked door, so she moved on. She knocked on 965 and was somewhat delighted and somewhat horrified to receive an answer.

The door opened and a blond man with glasses and a blue, pinstriped jacket opened the door. “Hello.” He glanced over her, as if trying to size up her importance. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m looking for Mr. Valentine. Is he here?”

“Depends what you mean by here. If you mean, in this room, then no, I’m afraid he’s not.”

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.” She turned to leave when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Miss?”

Aerith half-turned around. “Yes?”

The man smiled wryly and gestured to the left with his head. “He’s right next door. You weren’t that far off.”

Aerith smiled and nodded. “Thank you very much.”

The man nodded in acknowledgment before retreating back into the room, closing the door behind him. Aerith strode over to room 967, took a deep breath, then rapped on the door twice.

“Come in,” came a smooth, baritone voice from the other side. She grinned and twisted the knob, stepping inside.

Vincent was sitting at a desk, reading something over. A far cry from his hospital garb, he was wearing a smart blue suit with a black tie, polished black shoes, and black leather gloves. He looked considerably healthier than the last time she saw him.

He glanced up from his papers, then stood and walked toward her, firmly shaking her hand. “Miss Gainsborough.”

“Mr. Valentine.”

He let go of her hand and returned to his desk, gesturing for her to sit down across from him. She gingerly settled herself in the plush leather seat. “Mr. Valentine, I need your help.” No sense beating around the bush. She might as well get right to the heart of the matter.

“I gathered that much from your phone call. What exactly do you need help with?”

“Mako. I need some.”

Both his eyebrows went up, but otherwise his face remained unchanged.

“Not a lot!” she continued, “Just a little bit. Like, a vial full.” She dug through her purse and pulled out Cloud’s vial. “This size would be fine.”

This time, his eyebrows went down, furrowing in the center. “Is that blood, Miss Gainsborough?”

“Well, yes.” He opened his mouth to say something and she cut him off, “Hear me out first! There’s a very good reason for this!”

She explained the situation. She tried to keep it brief at first, explaining the key symptoms of the disease, and the main points of her Mako poisoning theory. Vincent turned out to be a _very_ good listener, however, and it wasn’t long before she found herself nearly in tears as she explained about Angeal’s coma, and how it was her fault, and how Zack and Cloud were so so _so_ much in love, and it really wasn’t fair. She told him about life-loving Yuffie, who was so _young_ , and the very talented Genesis, who would surely contribute something great to the arts, whether it be through writing, acting, or singing (she heard rumors he was good), if only he had the opportunity. Vincent kept his gaze down while he listened to her ramble on. When she finally ran out of things to say, an unsettling silence filled the room while she waited for him to respond.

Finally he glanced up. “Mako poisoning fades.”

Aerith could feel a lump forming in her throat. “I know, but—"

“Miss Gainsborough...Lucretia is very fond of you, she told me so herself.”

“Huh?” Lucretia? That was a bit off topic...

“It’s for that reason, and that reason alone, that I’m going to tell you this.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve had certain suspicions about Shinra for a long time, but I’ve never said anything. What you’ve told me. . . coincides, in a sense. If my suspicions turn out to be true. . . then my silence will be a sin for which I can never be forgiven. The suffering of your friends would be my fault.”

Aerith was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Vincent certainly had a flair for the dramatic. She’d have to introduce him to Genesis sometime...

Vincent stood up and started toward the door. Hastily, Aerith got up to follow, grabbing her bag off the floor.

“How many samples of blood did you bring, Miss Gainsborough?”

“Just two. I would have gotten more, but, well, I’m not even supposed to have these two. Zack and Cloud did me a huge favor with this.” She followed him down the hallway, then turned down two more before he finally brought her to a dimly lit room. They stopped in front of a counter, and he reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a set of four keys.

“Stay back. Mako isn’t dangerous unless you come in physical contact with it, but you still shouldn’t stand too close.”

Aerith nodded and took a step back, watching as Vincent unlocked three separate locks on the side of the counter, then lifted the top back. As soon as it was open, a bright green light flooded the room. Vincent reached in and picked up a pair of prongs, then carefully used them to grab a small vial from the racks inside. On a nearby counter, there were several beakers and pieces of equipment Aerith couldn’t begin to guess the names of. Vincent found a stand, seemingly made to hold that particular sized vial, and placed it inside. He put down the prongs and held his hand out toward Aerith.

“May I have the blood samples?”

Aerith handed Zack’s over first and, when he didn’t lower his hand, she placed Cloud’s down beside it. He set them down on the table and opened a box, pulling out an empty vial. He squirted something inside and swished it around before dumping the contents down a sink built into the counter. He did this to another vial, then placed them both in stands identical to the one holding the Mako. Next he found an eyedropper, and unscrewed the top to Zack’s blood. He put three drops in the first empty vial, then took Cloud’s blood (he used a different dropper) and repeated this step with the second empty vial. He took one last clean dropper, and unscrewed the Mako vial.

“When Mako is introduced to the blood stream, it fuses with the blood to make one liquid. If enough if introduced, the blood’s pigmentation will lighten. Your friends’ blood is normal, so if there _is_ Mako in them, it’s an extremely low amount.”

Aerith felt her spirits drop. “Oh.”

“However, I’ve often wondered what would happen if...” He paused to put a few drops of Mako in Zack’s vial. The green liquid momentarily merged with the blood, turning it a florescent orangey color, then quickly floated to the top, much like oil would with water. He repeated the process with Cloud’s blood and got the same result. “...someone were allergic to Mako.”

_________________________

By the time Aerith got home it was dark out, and her head was reeling from information overload. Vincent nearly had a breakdown while talking to her. He had suspicions about Shinra, sure, and he felt _horrible_ that so many people were suffering like Zack and Cloud, but that didn’t change the fact that he was a Shinra employee. Speaking out against them was a big deal, even if his only listener was a teenage girl not yet out of high school, with little to no pull in the world.

Aerith tried her best to put the puzzle pieces together on her own, and that helped Vincent a little. He seemed a little more comfortable telling her whether or not her hypotheses were correct, than just telling her straight out what the deal was. They beat around the bush for an hour before Aerith finally started getting the picture.

“Wait, so, you said Mako, in small amounts, wouldn’t affect a normal person at all, right?”

Vincent had his head in his hands and was staring at his desk as if doing so would combust the wood.

“Yes.”

“So, I could be ingesting Mako, right now, every day, and nothing would happen?”

“Yes.”

“But if someone like Zack or Cloud did that, they’d get sick eventually, right!?”

“Hypothetically.”

“Sooo, that must be what’s happening, we just have to figure out _how_ the Mako is getting in their system!”

“Correct.”

Aerith tapped her chin. “Well, um, you work with Mako a lot right?”

“My specialty is finding Mako. I don’t really handle it too much. I’ve read a lot about it, and I worked with it a bit when Shinra first took me on.” He paused and glanced up. “Lucretia was actually the one who told me about Mako and how it reacts to blood.”

“Okay. Well, Shinra uses Mako for pretty much everything. Do they use all of it? What’s going to happen to all those vials in that room, once you guys are done messing with them?”

The question seemed to make him uncomfortable. “Contaminated Mako doesn’t run as efficiently. It will be disposed of.”

“Where?”

Vincent went quiet. “They did do a lot of research, before they started dumping...they’ve never known Mako to harm animals...or plants...”

Her mouth suddenly felt dry. She licked her lips, half expecting them to feel cracked, but they were soft and moist, as usual. “Vincent. . . Mr. Valentine, _where_ are you dumping the Mako?” She thought it was a low blow, using 'you' rather than 'Shinra,' but it worked. A pang of guilt flashed through his eyes and he spilt his soul.

“Water sources. Rivers. The Ocean. Reservoirs. Shinra,” he took a deep breath, “ _we_ didn’t think much of it, since the Mako didn’t seem to have any affect. I don’t agree with it, I never have, but...I had no reason to object...”

Figuring things out from there was a cake walk. The city’s tap water was filtered from a local river. If Mako, watered down to a low concentration, had no effect, why bother making sure the filtering system worked on Mako? Those in control of water waste management or whatever might not even be aware Mako was _in_ the water. If Shinra wanted to keep it a secret, for fear of a bad public reaction, well, it would be kept a secret then. That’s what power meant.

Aerith thought of Zack, drenched in water while he tried to stuff a breakfast roll in his shower pipe. She thought of Yuffie, downing glasses of water, trying to clear her throat after a coughing fit. She thought of Cloud, filling her watering can and watering the flowers. Angeal, covered from head to toe in water, because he was too nice to say no to her. All of them, drinking it, bathing in it, brushing their teeth with it. By the end of the day, the amount of Mako they’d absorbed may have still been low, but to someone who was allergic...

She wasn’t sure what to do. Bottled water, that was really the same as tap, wasn’t it? The kind straight from a natural spring was even worse, because that meant there was zero chance Mako had been filtered out, right? Maybe. There was always the chance there wasn’t a single drop of Mako in whatever spring such-and-such brand of water was using. How was she to know? How was anyone to know?

She mulled this over the next morning on her way to the hospital. She had to tell someone, but who? Lucretia...wouldn’t believe her. If she heard it straight from Vincent’s mouth maybe, but from Aerith, no. That wouldn’t do. Tseng...might. She’d have to catch him on one of his open-minded days, of course, and he _was_ having more of them lately. She ran through a list of people in her mind as she passed through the double doors, heading straight for the elevator. She didn’t realize the receptionist failed to greet her, which was odd. She also didn’t notice the small, slightly sympathetic glances cast her way as she crossed the lobby.

When she stepped out of the elevator though, the impregnable silence filling the fourth floor was unignorable. Everyone seemed to glance up at once, in one big wave of apprehension, and Aerith tried to brace herself. As expected, Lucretia was the one to approach her.

“Aerith,” she paused to wet her lips, then placed a hand on Aerith’s shoulder. “Those boys need you right now. Angeal–Angeal is...”

She didn’t want to hear it. She shrugged Lucretia’s hand off her shoulder, and took a step back, nearly returning to the confines of the elevator.

Lucretia bit her bottom lip. “Aerith. Mr. Fair...Zack. Zack is...well...”

Zack. That’s right. Zack was what mattered most now, him and Cloud. They did need her. Slowly, she stumbled past Lucretia, walking in a daze. As she became more sure of her footing her pace increased and she wasn’t really sure when, but at some point she started running and suddenly she was in front of Cloud’s door, banging loudly. When Zack opened the door, she only took a moment to take in his red-rimmed eyes, underlined by dark circles made darker by the sudden paleness of his skin, before she fell against him, bringing them both to the ground. Zack held her impassively for a few moments before he placed his head atop hers. Cloud came from somewhere in the room and knelt behind him, wrapping his arms around his lover’s neck. Zack took his hand and gave it a firm squeeze.

“Aerith...I know this sounds weird, but do you mind crying for me? I don’t think I have any more left...Cloud either, but I...I feel like I shouldn’t be done yet,” the single arm draped over her shoulders tightened. “You know?”

Aerith was already sobbing freely, but she nodded anyway. “Of course Zack. Every one. Every tear. They’re all yours.”

“Thank you, Aerith.” She could feel his body shaking. “Thanks.”

_________________________

She went to Tseng the very next day, and bared her soul. She confessed to taking the boys’ blood, something to be severely frowned upon even if she did have their permission, and she told him of all her exploits and findings. She left out the part about inadvertently causing the flood to get Vincent’s contact information. No need to disclose _every_ detail, after all. When she finished, she felt like a little girl playing detective, trying to tell a famous detective she knew more about a case than he did. She was exhausted from the day before, and she knew without a doubt she would fall into a sobbing fit if Tseng laughed at her.

Tseng didn’t laugh.

He didn’t smile, or grin, or smirk, or anything. He just stared, his eyes narrowing in contemplation.

“And Mr. Vincent Valentine agrees with you?”

She nodded quickly.

His gaze dropped to the floor, “These are some pretty serious allegations, Aerith.”

“I know.”

His eyes flicked upwards toward her, “And you’ve broken rules to come to this conclusion.”

“I’m aware.”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, then stood from his seat across from her. “I have some phone calls to make. Ask Lucretia to my office, would you? And Red. Page him as well.”

She stood so quickly her vision swiveled. “You mean it!? Tseng, you’re really going to...Oh Tseng!”

“Don’t cry!” Tseng reprimanded, looking only slightly alarmed. “I haven’t promised anything yet. I’m going to be very busy from now on, a lot of work needs to be done. So just,” his hand was pinching the bridge of his nose again, “just do what I asked.” That said, he turned to walk away.

“Tseng!”

He half turned to regard her, and she felt kind of stupid as the words tumbled from her mouth, “You were always...my favorite babysitter, growing up.”

He watched her in silence for a moment before a small, almost unnoticeable smile touched his lips. “I was your only babysitter...moron.” And then he left.

_________________________

Priscilla never cried. Not once. She didn’t have a reason to. Everything always turned out okay in _Chocobo Chicks_ and really, compared to real life, the problems they faced weren’t really all that bad.

Aerith wasn’t Priscilla though, and she never would be. She cried. She cried often, and she was crying now.

“It’s not fair, they couldn’t, they just couldn’t...”

Reeve held her, too bashful to pull her close but too good-hearted to pull away. He awkwardly ran his hand up and down her arm, thoroughly unsure if that was an appropriately comforting gesture. “Shh, it’s okay Aerith. Zack and Cloud (Aerith let out a wail at their names and he couldn’t help but wince), they’re...better off now. They’re together, and happy...that’s all that matters.”

Aerith hiccupped. “But I-I-I didn’t even get to say goodbye! I just wanted...one last time...” She broke into a fresh round of sobs and threw herself into his chest, clutching his jacket and ruining his shirt with her tears. Reeve threw his arms out as if she had burned them, then reluctantly wrapped them around her, patting her back.

“It’s okay Aerith. They would have said goodbye if they could but...considering the situation...everything happened so fast...don’t be sad. Shhhh, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

“Aerith?” They both looked up. “Um, not to interrupt your...time...with your, um...nurse dude friend, but..."

Aerith let go of Reeve’s jacket and stood up straight, wiping the tears from her eyes and smearing her already blotchy mascara.

Zack held out his arms. “...would it be okay if we got a goodbye hug?”

He didn’t have to ask twice. She bounded into his arms, nearly knocking him over before swiftly letting go and grabbing Cloud, who was standing quietly to his left, and planting a messy kiss on his cheek. He scrunched his nose and wiped at his cheek, which was so _him_ that she couldn’t help but laugh. She enveloped him in a quick hug then let go and latched herself back onto Zack.

“I thought you guys already left!”

Cloud regarded her with a wry smile. “Is that why you were crying?” He reached forward and gently wiped some of her mascara away. She nodded and Zack pushed her away, grabbing her shoulders and looking her square in the face.

“You thought we _left_?” He did his best to look offended. His best wasn’t that great.

Aerith gave a guilty smile. “Well, everyone said you did, and I wouldn’t have blamed you, but I wasn’t sure where you were going, or what your parents had planned, or how soon...”

Zack nodded curtly. “We _are_ leaving soon, but we would never leave without saying goodbye to everyone! Especially you.” His eyes softened. “We wouldn’t be here without you.”

“Tseng did all the work. I just,” she shrugged, “had thoughts, I guess. So, what kind of plans do you guys have? Are you going to keep staying with your parents?”

“Nah, we’re moving to Gongaga! Just like we planned!” Zack swung an arm around Cloud’s shoulder and pressed him to his side. Cloud smiled softly, a light blush dusting his cheeks.

“It’ll be difficult.” Cloud, ever the realist. “Neither of us can drive and our education is extremely limited...”

“But I’ve been talking to Kunsel, who spoke to his parents, they have like, tooooons of land, and they gave us this super awesome deal on a pretty decent chunk of land...”

“And with the money we got from the Shinra lawsuit we have just enough to build a house and get some tools—"

“Farmer tools!”

“—so we’ll, you know, see how that plays out. Vegetables and stuff can’t be _that_ different from flowers right? And you taught us pretty well about all that.” Cloud smiled shyly. “We’re going to have a little flower garden out front though.”

Aerith smiled back. “And a dog?”

The boys exchanged a look. “Yeah. Mog.”

“We’re leaving tonight,” Zack said, scratching the back of his neck a bit nervously. “Ma and Pops bought us airship tickets, as going away presents, which is kind of ironic cause we couldn’t go away without them but...anyway, we’ve never been on one before, so we’re a little nervous.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice, “I heard about this _really_ cool thing called the mile high club, which I _totally_ want to join but Cloud’s being all, ‘Nooooo, ewww, that’s weird!’ but trust me, once we get-oof!” He was cut off by Cloud’s elbow jabbing into his stomach. He smiled sheepishly.

“If things go well, and we make money, we’ll come back to visit. And you’ll always be welcome to stay with us too, whenever you’d like,” Cloud said, meeting her eyes.

She nodded. “Thanks, I’d like that.”

It had been almost two years since that fateful day when she told Tseng of her suspicions. A long legal battle ensued in which President Shinra was found guilty of illegally disposing of dangerous substances and causing the death and illness of countless individuals. He was sent to prison nine months ago and his son, Rufus, became the new head of the company. Aerith wasn’t sure how much better a person he was (he seemed to have a cold look in his eyes...that could have just been her imagination though), but he _did_ make sure Shinra was running legally and that the unprocessed Mako was being disposed of safely. She couldn’t really ask for more than that.

Since then, the Mako poisoning patients’ health had improved dramatically. Sephiroth was the first to be given a clean bill of health. He was dispatched from the hospital a little more than two months ago, though he hung around until Genesis was released a week later. They left together and no one at the hospital had seen them since. Yuffie was next. Her father (who turned out to rule like, the _entire_ region of Wutai, meaning Yuffie really was as much of a bigwig as she boasted) burst into the hospital days after they called him, tears and snot running down his face as he picked his little girl up in a bear hug and swung her around, loudly proclaiming his joy. When he finally put her down, Yuffie punched him in the stomach and yelled at him for making a scene. Aerith received letters from her frequently.

All the Mako poisoning patients were gradually released. Having been exposed the longest and, as a result, having the most severe cases, Cloud and Zack were amongst the very last to be released. Zack was deemed ready to leave first, but the doctors decided not to release him until Cloud was able to leave as well. It was unprofessional, but so many rules had already been broken regarding the two, no one thought one more would hurt. They figured the boys would appreciate it, in any case.

“How long are you going to be interning here anyway?” Zack asked.

Aerith smiled. “Just another year. Once I get my associate’s degree Tseng said they’re going to hire me on as a nurse.”

Zack scrunched his nose. “Nurse? You should be a doctor!”

Aerith giggled while Cloud explained that she was going to need a few more degrees after her associate's to be a doctor. Zack didn’t look convinced.

“That’s stupid. They should make an exception for you. Hell, they should be giving you a freaking Bugenhagen Peace Prize!”

The boys stayed for a while, following her around while she worked and occasionally leaving to bid farewell to their other friends. Aerith couldn’t help but think how weird it must have been, saying goodbye to all the people they’d lived with for so many years. They lived in the hospital for most of their lives, and now they may never see it again...

“Well, we’re gonna get going Aerith. Ma and Pops are waiting. They already gave us goodbye hugs, but I figure they still have at least three more to give us. Ma probably isn’t done crying yet either.”

Aerith smiled gently. “I can’t really blame her. I don’t think I’m done yet either...”

The boys smiled gently and hugged her goodbye, one last time.

“Don’t worry Aerith, we’ll write! And it won’t be too long before you see us again! When we decide to get married you can come be my best person!”

Cloud frowned. “I thought she was going to be my best person?”

“You can have Sephiroth.”

Cloud frowned more. Aerith laughed.

They dragged out the goodbye for a few more minutes but eventually they had to leave. Aerith watched them walk out of the hospital doors for what was probably the very last time.

“You made a big difference in those boys lives, you know.”

Aerith didn’t need to look. She knew it was Tseng before he had even spoke.

“Of course I did. That’s what white mages do.”

Tseng raised an eyebrow, smiling in bemusement. “White mage?”

“Mm-hmm.”

When Aerith Gainsborough was in first grade, her teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She cried when she was told she couldn’t be an all-powerful white mage, but really, it was the truth. She _couldn’t_ be an all-powerful white mage.

“You realize mages don’t exist...right, Miss Gainsborough?”

“White ones do. You’re one, and I’m one. A little one, but I’m learning. And you know what? I bet I’m going to be really great, eventually. Maybe not all-powerful...but great.”

Tseng shook his head. “Whatever you say, Aerith. Whatever you say.”

She couldn’t be an all-powerful white mage. She _could_ be a doctor though. And that was just as good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy, I feel like that was corny? Or maybe it just seems that way because I wrote it so long ago?  
> I mentioned before that I wrote this story as something to help me through writer's block. I honestly was planning on killing Zack and Cloud (I know, I'm the worst!) but so many reviewers said they hoped they didn't die that I felt bad and let them live, lol. So if the ends feels a little "that would never happen..." then that's the reason why! I never really planned on there being a solution to this problem. These boys were saved by the power of comments!  
> Regardless, I hoped you enjoyed reading (or rereading!) this old story of mine.


End file.
